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The Houston Roughnecks (along with the other seven UFL franchises) need a new coach. The Roughnecks have gotten an new General Manager.
Via Pro Football Newsroom, Lionel Vital is out. Will Lewis is in.
The Roughnecks finished 2024 with the worst record in the league, at 1-9.
Vital worked for the Patriots from 2000 through 2004 as a scout for a year and then assistant director of college scouting. He spent 2005-06 with the Ravens. He joined the Falcons in 2007 as assistant director of player personnel. From 2013-15, he was the director of player personnel in Atlanta. He worked for the Cowboys from 2016 through 2021. Vital retired from the NFL in 2022, before coming out of retirement last year to take a job with the UFL.
Lewis flipped from coaching to scouting in the 1990s, working for the Packers from 1997-98, the Seahawks from 1999 through 2012 (as director of pro scouting and then V.P. of player personnel), and the Chiefs from 2013 through 2017 (as director of pro scouting). He worked for the AAF’s Memphis Express in 2019, the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks in 2020, and the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas in 2023.
It’s unclear who makes the decisions about General Managers coming and going on UFL teams, especially when there’s no coach under contract. The UFL is owned as a single entity, with no individual franchise owners.
Regardless, someone decided to make the change from Vital to Lewis. With one win in 10 games, it’s not a huge surprise.