By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Could North Carolina add players cut from NFL rosters?
Coach Bill Belichick said he is looking into a Louisiana federal judge’s decision Wednesday granting a temporary restraining order that would allow some of them to enter the transfer portal. With classes already underway, it would be a challenge.
“We are looking into that. From what I understand, there are a few more hoops to jump through,” Belichick, who may lose place-kicker Reese Verhoff because of another ruling, said at a Friday press conference at the Kenan Football Center.
“But there are potentially other avenues there,” he said. “There are number of factors involved that we would have to work through with any player, just procedurally, from admissions to NIL or rev share or things like that, as well as just the class structure and accreditation, all those things.”
The ruling resulted from a lawsuit brought by a group of former college players, some of whom are on NFL rosters. The order blocks the NCAA from enforcing rules that would otherwise prevent athletes who signed professional contracts from returning to college sports.
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That means that players such as Buccaneers edge rusher Jack Pyburn and Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright, both plaintiffs in the case, could enter the transfer portal ahead of the 2026 season.
The ruling is narrow, applying only to the players named in the suit, and is a stopgap measure that will remain in place until a judge holds a hearing on a longer-term injunction.
With NFL teams required to trim rosters to 53 players by Aug. 30, the decision opened the opportunity for cut players to make college football a fallback option. It comes when programs are already scrambling to sort out an eligibility landscape that has shifted several times over the summer.
Belichick pointed out that other schools where classes haven’t started probably have an advantage over UNC.
“We’ve looked at a number of them, and each case is a little bit different,” Belichick said. “And if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. There’s nothing we’re counting on, but we’re always open to anything that would help the team.”
A ruling on Friday likely means that Verhoff won’t be able to play his fifth college season with the Tar Heels. It will also mean that Seth Trimble won’t be able to play a fifth college season at Louisville.
The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit granted the NCAA’s request for a stay in Wisne v. NCAA by a 2–1 vote. That case made Verhoff eligible.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s July 31 ruling in Colorado certified a nationwide class of athletes from the high school Class of 2022, including Verhoff. It gave them a fifth season of eligibility despite the NCAA’s new age-based model excluding that group.
The NCAA appealed immediately, calling Sweeney’s decision “egregiously wrong,” and Friday’s stay effectively pauses that class-wide protection while the appeal plays out.
Athletes who were relying solely on the Colorado ruling, rather than a separate case decided in their favor, are no longer covered unless they secure individual relief in court, which is the situation Verhoff and North Carolina now find themselves navigating just over a week before the season opener.
That would leave the main kicking duties to LSU transfer Aeron Burrell.
Photo via YouTube screenshot
