2025 Defensive Player of the Year, Michael Lawson, Signs Contract with the UFL

Michael Lawson has had an interesting professional football career, which has taken him overseas to Europe for a stint in the European League of Football, where he has continued to showcase the elite playmaking ability that earned him notice coming out of college. Before the 2024 season, Lawson had initially signed a letter of intent with the Houston Roughnecks in the XFL at the time. However, just months after signing, the USFL and XFL announced a merger that shook up spring football and left 8 teams' worth of talented players without a place to play. 

Now two years removed from that situation, another restructure and draft may have helped open up his opportunity to show he belongs in the UFL. While he was not selected in the UFL Draft process, he was signed shortly after the draft process as teams filled out the rest of their rosters. He joins the Columbus Aviators, reuniting with Jalen Morton. The Columbus Aviators now have both the AF1 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year, and 2025 AF1 Defensive Player of the Year on the same UFL roster. 

Michael Lawson was one of those players whose chance to play in the XFL was taken away before he could even prove himself. Given how this all unfolded, Lawson was looking for another opportunity to continue playing when he connected with the Southwest Kansas Storm. He would ultimately opt to sign with the Storm for the 2024 AFL season. Over the next two seasons, Lawson continued to do what Michael Lawson does, making big plays early and often. 

Unfortunately, we no longer have the full scope of his impact statistically due to the issues with the AFL in 2024. However, they did manage to track stats for 5 of his games in 2024, as well as his entire 2025 season. In the 18 total games tracked during his time with the Storm, Lawson accounted for:

122 tackles

4 tackles for a loss

12 interceptions

8 forced fumbles

4 fumble recoveries

16 pass breakups

4 defensive touchdowns

2 kick returns 26 yards

If there was one game that showcased Lawson's dominance at times throughout 2025, it was Week Zero, played at home against the Nashville Kats. In this game, Lawson intercepted 3 total passes from quarterbacks who had recently spent time on NFL and CFL rosters. He also collected 9 tackles, 1 pass break-up and found himself in the endzone twice. He led his defense to 7 total turnovers, including 5 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles on the day in what turned into the first of 7 wins for the Storm in 2025. 

In 2025, Lawson seemed to take some games over, whether by intercepting passes or with an uncanny ability to force fumbles. On a team that won 7 of 12 games and finished with the second-most wins in the league in 2025, they had 6 games decided by 7 points or less. In those 6 games, Lawson accounted for 5 forced fumbles, 3 recoveries, 1 interception, and 1 touchdown. 

In fact, there was just one game all season long that was decided by 1 score that Lawson did not account for at least 1 turnover, and that was in the playoffs versus the Nashville Kats in what turned out to be a 5-point loss. Lawson was often the catalyst for a momentum shift in the Storm’s favor in 2025. With him signing with the UFL for 2026, the question becomes which of the defensive backs can step up and fill that role in the backend of the defense for the Storm. 

The bright side is the team has assembled a very talented secondary with some players that could prove to be crucial pieces to another playoff puzzle in 2026 as the team moves into the National Arena League. 

Congratulations to Michael Lawson. A great player, and a great person.