Calvin Ashley received All-USFL recognition for his play at right guard for the New Jersey Generals last year. But the former Auburn offensive lineman didn’t have a team to go back to this year.

Since the 2023 season ended, the USFL merged with the XFL to create the United Football League. Four franchises from each spring-football circuit were included in the merger, and the Generals didn’t make the cut from the USFL.

That left the surviving USFL teams – the Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers (now renamed the Roughnecks), Memphis Showboats and the Michigan Panthers – to divvy up the best players from the defunct USFL teams in a dispersal draft on Jan. 8.

Ashley went to the Stallions.

“He’s played a lot,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said on Wednesday during the Stallions’ first week of training camp in Arlington, Texas. “You look at his history, his background, he’s a quality player, and I think he’s got a chance to be really good. But I’ll have a better idea when we get through these first 10 days because we’re in shorts again today.”

Holtz said Birmingham had 14 offensive linemen and deciding which eight would make the regular-season roster wouldn’t really start taking shape until the Stallions began padded practices.

“Calvin is a big, big, big, big talented individual that right now he’s picking up great Day 1,” Holtz said. “I’m anxious to put on the pads so we can get a better evaluation of our offensive and defensive linemen. …

“I would image Day 4 when we start putting on spider pads and shoulder pads, we’ll start to get a fuller evaluation of where all those offensive linemen are. But couldn’t be more excited to have Calvin on our roster right now because I think he has a chance to be a great addition. It’s going to be a heck of a competition up front.”

The offensive line – Darius Harper, O’Shea Dugas, Cohl Cabral, Derwin Gray and Matt Kaskey – that started the Stallions’ 28-12 victory over the Pittsburgh Maulers in the 2023 USFL Championship Game returns for Birmingham.

Among the other offseason additions to the Stallions’ roster is guard Deonte Brown. The former Austin High School and Alabama standout was a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and has spent the past three seasons with the Carolina Panthers, mainly on the practice squad.

“One of the things I’ve said repeatedly is this league is going to be better because of the merger,” Holtz said. “What happened was during the first draft, there were 88 players that started in the USFL last year that were on the draft board, that played this game, started for another team in the USFL.”

Ashley had played the past two seasons for New Jersey.

Ashley redshirted at Auburn in 2017, then played eight games for the Tigers in 2018. He transferred after that season to Florida Atlantic, before winding up at Florida A&M.

Ashley joined the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted rookie in 2021 but did not survive training camp.

Birmingham will play in the United Football League’s inaugural game when the Stallions take on the Arlington Renegades at noon CDT March 30 at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas. FOX will televise the game.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.