Danny Etling and his Michigan Panthers will be playing with the USFL Conference title on the line this weekend.
After spinning through four different quarterbacks this season, the UFL’s Michigan Panthers will be starting quarterback Danny Etling, a former member of the Green Bay Packers, in the team’s USFL Conference championship game against the Birmingham Stallions this weekend. Interestingly enough, the two teams also faced off this past Saturday when Etling’s Panthers fell short by one point to the Stallions after kicker Jake Bates — who is drawing NFL attention — missed a 53-yard field goal with time expiring.
On the year, Etling has completed 69 passes off of 114 attempts for 787 yards (6.9 yards per pass), three touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s also ran for 143 yards and two scores during the UFL’s regular season.
Danny Etling with a 46-yard DIME for the TD 🎯
The @USFLPanthers make it a 10-point lead in Birmingham 👀 pic.twitter.com/2FDFDeau8e— United Football League (@TheUFL) June 1, 2024
Etling first got an opportunity in Green Bay when he was signed as a one-week practice squad player in 2021 while then backup quarterback Jordan Love was dealing with being on the COVID/reserve list. At the end of that season, he signed a reserve/futures contract with the team, leading to Etling making the full-time practice squad for the duration of the 2022 season. He also signed a reserve/futures contract following that year, which kept him on the roster until his final release from Green Bay on August 6th of 2023. In December, he signed with the Panthers after previously playing for seven NFL teams and the CFL’s BC Lions.
51-yard run to the HOUSE for Danny Etling & @AaronRodgers12 is loving it!
TOUCHDOWN! 🙌#GoPackGo
📺: #NOvsGB on Packers TV Network pic.twitter.com/7c87kTNh74— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 20, 2022
Now, Etling will face the toughest test of his professional career: Beating the spring league superpower Stallions in a win-or-go-home game. The Stallions have previously won back-to-back USFL titles before the league merged with the XFL this season to make the new UFL. In his spring league career, Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz is 29-4 — including the playoffs.
Etling will be on the opposite sideline of a couple of faces he used to throw to in Packers’ practices: tight end Jace Sternberger and receiver Amari Rodgers. Both former third-round picks are now members of the Stallions. Sternberger, who leads Birmingham in receiving, almost certainly will be named the league’s All-UFL tight end when that list is finally announced.
DANNY ETLING HIT THE JETS 🔥
— United Football League (@TheUFL) June 1, 2024
The @USFLPanthers take the lead over the Stallions 🐾 pic.twitter.com/HSA8qsN37f
So if you want to watch a couple of former Packers this weekend, the USFL Conference championship game is a way to get your football fix. Last week, the conference championship game preview featured Etling throwing 16 completions off of 31 pass attempts versus Birmingham for 195 yards and a touchdown. Both of Michigan’s leading rushers were quarterbacks — Bryce Perkins and Etling — so assume that you’ll see a little bit of a two-quarterback system on the field, with Perkins playing the role of a “wildcat” quarterback.
