In 2022, as former Texas A&M tight end Jalen Wydermyer was getting released from his childhood favorite team, he did the impossible: made the notoriously crotchety then-coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, crack a smile.
“I was very sad, don’t get me wrong,” Wydermyer said. “But Bill Belichick, he sat me down, and he gave me the whole speech. I sat there, and I told him, I said, ‘Hey, I grew up a Patriots fan. I grew up watching you, Tom Brady, Gronk, win championships, so you don’t know how much of a blessing it was to even be a part of this team.’ And he looked at me, and I swear to God, he smiled.”
On what could have been the nadir of his professional career, Wydermyer views it as the apex — a perspective emblematic of the tight end’s approach to football and life. An approach that has led him to find a home with the United Football League’s Michigan Panthers.
As A&M’s all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns for tight ends, Wydermyer expected to hear his name called in the 2022 NFL Draft. As the picks dwindled down, and 19 other tight ends were selected, Wydermyer was left awaiting his life-changing phone call. It wasn’t until late on the third day of the Draft that Wydermyer received a call from the Buffalo Bills to sign as an undrafted free agent.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Wydermyer said. “Now, that whole process was kind of tough for me, just because I was projected to go so high and fell all the way down to sign UDFA. So it was tough. … It’s like you’re ready for the call. Your whole family’s ready for the call, and you find out the call’s gonna have to wait.”
At just 21 years old, the starry-eyed Wydermyer was whisked away to Orchard Park, New York, where the rookie tight end spent four months before being released in August. Wydermyer attributed his short stint with the team to still “being upset” at not being drafted.
“I was mentally ready as a player, but when you go to [the] NFL, you’re just not a player,” Wydermyer said. “You’re also a businessman, and you have to know the ins and outs of the business world if you want to make it in the NFL because everybody’s talented. But are you going to be a special teams guy, or are you going to be Travis Kelce? Travis Kelce doesn’t have to play special teams, just for the fact that he’s Travis Kelce and he’s that good. I’m not Travis Kelce, so I’ve got to make myself valuable to the team in other ways.”
After getting cut from the Bills, the Dickinson native caught on with the Patriots for roughly a month before spending the rest of the 2022 season as a member of the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad. Following another release, Wydermyer worked on his blocking and strength for nearly two years before getting the chance to play professionally again. This time, it was the UFL’s Michigan Panthers that came calling.
“My [general manager], Mr. [Steve] Kazor was looking at me throughout my draft process, and so he’s liked me as a player ever since,” Wydermyer said. “And once he saw that I was open and I wasn’t in the NFL at the time, he was like, ‘Hey, want to come to the UFL?’ and my agent set the whole thing up.”
The UFL is a league co-owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, born from a merger of the previously Vince McMahon-owned XFL and the United States Football League on Dec. 31, 2023. The UFL has eight teams, decades of combined NFL experience in the coaching ranks and plays in the spring to give its players the best chance of latching on with an NFL team in May, Johnson told USA Today Sports in 2023.
“I didn’t watch, I know it was a new league because of USFL and the XFL joined together,” Wydermyer said. “So I didn’t know how it was going to be. But, it’s practically the NFL, honestly. It’s a new league, so the money is just not what the NFL is, of course, but in terms of experience, in terms of professional coaching, like my coach is Mike Nolan, you know? You don’t get more professional, and he’s done 30-plus years in the NFL. So I’m getting the right coaching. And I knew [the] Michigan Panthers was the right place for me to be at.”
Wydermyer isn’t just filling a roster spot for the Panthers — he’s a contributor who nabbed his first touchdown on April 18. The milestone was not just important to him, but to the rekindled flame of support he once felt from the 12th Man.
“A lot of the Panthers fans knew exactly who I was,” Wydermyer said. “Did research on me, and even after I scored my first touchdown in the UFL, I had kids coming to me from Michigan telling me they used to go watch me at A&M. … The Panthers have such a great fan community … they’re just like A&M fans. They’re die hard about what they do and who they believe in, and they’ll always stick by your side no matter whether you lose or win.”
Returning to his native Greater Houston area on Saturday, May 17, to take on the Houston Roughnecks, Wydermyer will have family cheering him on in the stands and a former A&M teammate to battle on the field.
“I talked to Leon [O’Neal Jr.] earlier this morning,” Wydermyer said. “I saw him at the facility. … I saw the last game when he played against Jace [Sternberger], which was a good game, too. And I was like, ‘Hey, just know like me and you gonna be going at it.’ And you know, Leon, he gonna bring the energy, so it’s gonna be good.”
With the knowledge of team success in the UFL bringing more eyes back to Wydermyer’s individual achievements, the tight end hopes to make a return to the NFL. But as he chases that goal, Wydermyer’s perspective has become one of gratitude for his rare position as a professional athlete.
“Sometimes it’s like, I don’t realize how blessed I am because I’ve played the sport since I was 4 years old, 5 years old,” Wydermyer said. “Then until I hear a story about somebody who can’t do what I do. And I just realized I just like, dang, like, I am a professional football player. I’m one of those percenters. … That gives me drive every day to go out and take every day more serious and take every rep serious and just know that at any moment it could all be over. I started to understand that later in my career. … I’m really blessed.”
