Former Kansas quarterback Jason Bean signed with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted rookie following this past April’s draft. On Wednesday, however, Bean was selected first overall by the Memphis Showboats in the 2024 UFL college draft.
With the first pick of the 2024 UFL College Draft, we’ve selected QB Jason Bean 🙌🚤 #SHOWTIME🤩 pic.twitter.com/yNcekeBtX6
— Memphis Showboats (@USFLShowboats) July 17, 2024
The UFL celebrated its inaugural season this past spring after the USFL and XFL merged. The draft pool available to UFL teams included only undrafted players from the 2024 class.
Bean played six college seasons, three with North Texas and the final three with Kansas. As a passer, he completed 59 percent of his career throws at 8.6 yards per attempt with 55 touchdowns to 26 interceptions.
In his most recent season, Bean averaged an impressive 10.7 yards per pass attempt, the second-highest mark in college football behind only LSU’s Jayden Daniels. He also completed 62 percent of his passes with 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
In addition to primarily playing quarterback, Bean would line up in the backfield and as a receiver, rushing for 1,487 yards in his career with 14 scores. With 4.55 speed and versatile, the Colts want to give Bean a chance at receiver as well.
“Traits,” said assistant GM Ed Dodds about Bean. “He’s long. He’s really fast. He’s faster than what his recorded 40 time is. The more things they can do. He’s going to do some different things for us too.”
We won’t really know how the Colts plan to strike that balance between Bean playing quarterback and receiver until training camp starts to unfold. The odds are this will be a developmental year for Bean, as is the case for most UDFAs, as he transitions not only to the NFL level, but playing a new position as well.
With that said, his dynamic skill set could bring some unique wrinkles to Shane Steichen’s offense, whether it be this year or down the road.
Although Bean was drafted by Memphis, he is still on the Colts’ roster with Indianapolis holding his contract rights. The upcoming UFL season won’t begin until next spring, at which point Bean could have another option depending on how this season goes for him and as long as he’s not under contract with an NFL team.