Championship game-bound Panthers QB Bryce Perkins named UFL Offensive Player of Year

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Michigan Panthers are headed to the UFL Championship this Saturday - and star quarterback Bryce Perkins is a big reason why.

As more proof of that, Perkins was named 2025 UFL Offensive Player of the Year Wednesday, a week after being named all-UFL.

The Queen Creek, Arizona native finished the regular season fourth in the league in passing yards (1,342), tied for second in passing touchdowns (9), second in completion percentage (.690) and second in efficiency rating (69.0). In addition, he was tied for first in the league in rushing touchdowns (5) among quarterbacks.

Perkins leads the Panthers against the DC Defenders at 8 p.m. on Saturday, televised on ABC at the Edward R. Jones Dome in St. Louis. CLICK HERE for ticket information.

The game is a rematch against the Defenders which the Panthers beat 38-14 in Week Six, when Perkins accounted for 280 combined passing and rushing yards with two touchdowns.

The UFL is an eight-team spring professional football league with four teams in the USFL Conference and in the XFL Conference - named for each of the two previous leagues which merged.

Perkins, 28, was limited to seven games this season due to injury, earned the UFL’s Pizza Hut Offensive Player of the Week honor three times in 2025. He was the only player to win the weekly offensive award multiple times this season.

Despite missing the last three games of the regular season due to injury and splitting time at quarterback early in the season, Perkins completed 109-of-158 passes for 1,342 yards and nine touchdowns, while only throwing two interceptions. He also added 269 rushing yards and five scores on 47 carries.

The dual-threat QB was selected by a panel of league and team executives, coaches and players from all eight teams, as well as broadcast partners and media members, based on player performances from the 10-game regular season.

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It marks a huge milestone in a longshot comeback from a broken  neck he suffered back in 2016. Perkins, while at Arizona State, broke two vertabraes on a goal line dive.

"They told me there was a chance I would never play again," he said in the UFL Underdog Stories. "It was either get surgery now and never get cleared, or take a chance and let it get healed by itself and risk long-term injury down the road.

"I wanted to give myself the best option discussing it with my family and friends, and decided to give it one more go and went to the doctors every other week."

From there Perkins rehabbed he said, still with the chance he may never play again.

"Just making sure I did a lot of things body-wise making sure that when I did come back - I didn't know if I'd come back - but if I did, that I would be in the best shape, best situation, physically as I could," he said.

After that year he went to Arizona Western Jr. College, before enrolling at the University of Virginia where he won the starting quarterback job and flourished.

Perkins then played three years with the Rams, and won the Super Bowl in 2022. as Matthew Stafford's backup.

He spoke about how the experience shaped him.

"It taught me a lot about perserverance, a lot about patience, a lot about trials and tribulations, which I think everybody has in some form, no matter what it is in life. It prepared me for a lot of things I experienced later on."

His first Pizza Hut Offensive Player of the Week honor came following his Week Three performance against the San Antonio Brahmas. He connected on 17-of-23 passes for 193 passing yards and rushed for 30 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

With the game tied 23-23 and under five minutes remaining, Perkins engineered a fourth-quarter, game-winning drive culminating in a winning field goal with less than a minute remaining in the contest to give the Panthers a 26-23 victory.

Perkins followed that with a second straight league Offensive Player of the Week honor for his Week Four performance against the Memphis Showboats. He completed 15-of-22 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns, while adding 45 rushing yards in a 27-9 win.

His final Offensive Player of the Week nod came following his game against the DC Defenders in Week Six, when he completed 13-of-18 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 90 yards, leading the Panthers to a 38-14 victory.

In addition to his statistical accolades, Perkins’ style of play created buzz in the sports world. The first of his multiple viral highlights was a broken play, two-yard scramble, which resulted in a touchdown in a Week One victory against the Memphis Showboats. In Week Six against the Defenders, Perkins found Malik Turner in the endzone for a no-look touchdown pass.

In Week Seven against the Arlington Renegades, he orchestrated a 12-play, 71-yard drive that culminated in a one-yard, walk-off touchdown run by Toa Taua. During the winning drive, Perkins had a 10-yard run with an acrobatic dive as the clock nearly expired, setting up the 25-24 victory.

UFL Special Teams POY:

Also taking home honors this week is Michigan Panthers defensive back Kedrick Whitehead Jr.,

Whitehead was named Special Teams Player of the Year. Whiteheard was recognized for being the "Iron Man" of special teams for the Panthers, on kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return.

In addition, he earned All-UFL honors as a cornerback for the Panthers finishing first on the team and ranked seventh in the UFL in tackles (66), helping to propel the Panthers to a spot in the USFL Conference Championship Game against the Birmingham Stallions.     

 

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