March 19, 2024
By Daniel Cohen

With 2024 team rosters announced and the schedule set to start in just over five weeks, here are my picks for the 10 best offenses heading into the new season.

10. Chicago Union
Projected starting O-line: Sam Kaminsky, John Lithio, Ben Preiss, Jack Shanahan, Andrew Sjogren, Jeff Weis, Joe White

Three big name additions have vaulted Chicago’s O-line into the top 10 conversation heading into 2024: John Lithio, Jeff Weis, and Joe White. With Jack Shanahan and Andrew Sjogren also downfield, there’s a lot of potential for this to be one of the more explosive cutting groups in the league—big throwers, big targets, and great speed is usually a strong recipe for success. The questions of course lie in the backfield, but if Joe White is given the reins of the offense, like what Carolina did with him last season, Sam Kaminsky and Ben Preiss could thrive in complementary handler roles; the Union have been at their best in recent years when they’ve taken pressure off handlers and relied on their cutters to generate big plays. Chicago understandably failed to fill the Pawel Janas role last year, but now if White is able to play a majority of games (big “if,” I’ll admit), we could be looking at this group as a top-five unit by the end of the season.

9. Austin Sol
Projected starting O-line: Reese Bowman, Noah Chambers, Mark Evans, Duncan Fitzgerald, Kyle Henke, Jake Radack, Evan Swiatek

There’s a little bit of uncertainty with the seven spot on this O-line following the departures of Michael Matthis and Zach Slayton—maybe we see D-liners Eric Brodbeck or Joey Wylie switch over more frequently this year—but the Evans-Henke-Swiatek core remains intact as one of the best three-man hybrid sets in the league. These three seem to constantly elevate the play of everyone around them and simply overwhelm defenses with their versatility, whether its Evans’ full-field hucks, Henke’s game-breaking layouts, or Swiatek’s improbable skies. In the backfield, Duncan Fitzgerald came out of nowhere last season to join Jake Radack in anchoring Austin’s mobile passing attack, forming a dangerous one-two punch. There’s still a bit too much inconsistency to rank as a truly elite offense heading into 2024, but the talent is undoubtedly there, and we’ve seen what the Sol can do when they approach their ceiling, as they did in their upset win over Atlanta in last year’s South Division Championship Game.

8. Indianapolis AlleyCats
Projected starting O-line: Cameron Brock, Travis Carpenter, Lucas Coniaris, Rick Gross, Levi Jacobs, Jake Kenniv/Keegan North, Xavier Payne

It’s far from the flashiest offense you’ve seen, but this Indianapolis AlleyCats O-line was one of the steadiest in the league last year, finishing as the fifth-most efficient. Indy took a DC Breeze-esque approach to offense; they averaged the second-most completions per game (DC was first) with the fourth-fewest huck completions (DC averaged the second-fewest). They will be without Jeremy Keusch this year, but this should remain a productive group with plenty of throwers and good decision-makers downfield. Jake Kenniv, who will be joined by former Detroit teammate Jack Havey in Indianapolis this year, looks like a great candidate to take on Keusch’s vacated production as Cameron Brock’s counterpart downfield, though I could see either of those guys slotting in on offense and having an Andrew Sjogren-like impact for their new team. Xavier Payne and Travis Carpenter remain excellent primary throwers and should have the offense running smoothly yet again in 2024.

7. Los Angeles Aviators
Projected starting O-line: Sam Cook, Michael Kiyoi, Pawel Janas, Sean McDougall, Bryan Nguyen, Everest Shapiro, Brandon Van Deusen

No Marcel Osborne this year, but the Los Angeles Aviators will be returning six of their seven O-line starters from last season and have brought back Bryan Nguyen for 2024; Nguyen played for the team from 2015 to 2017 and scored 130 goals in 43 games in that span (over 3.0 goals per game). If he looks anything like he did in his 50-goal 2017 season—wow was that really seven years ago?—Nguyen should take on Osborne’s vacated production and give the O-line another strong downfield receiver. LA’s O-line will again be anchored by two stud handlers in Pawel Janas and Brandon Van Deusen, who led a patient attack that got more and more consistent as the 2023 season progressed; the duo combined for the most completions, yards, and throwing yards by any pair of teammates in the league last season, and will look to build on last year’s success after LA came up just shy of a Championship Weekend appearance.

6. Colorado Summit
Projected starting O-line: Alex Atkins, Quinn Finer, Jay Froude, Matt Jackson, Danny Landesman, Jonathan Nethercutt, Connor Olson 

I’m not sure what to do with any of Colorado’s newcomers like Jeremy Knopf (DC, 2019-2023), Cody Johnston (DC, 2019), and Logan Pruess (MAD, 2016-2022), all of whom have previous UFA O-line experience, and I’m not at all sold on Jonathan Nethercutt starting the year on offense despite playing 95 percent of his points on O-line in his first two years with Colorado. While the core of Alex Atkins, Quinn Finer, Jay Froude, Matt Jackson, and Danny Landesman feels rock-solid, the six and seven spots on this line feel more up in the air. The team has gone away from the “Nethercutt QB1” offense, and the coaching staff even toyed with the idea of moving Nutt to defense last year. They seem to prefer a more motion-based offense rather than going with a pure quarterback, which favors guys like Atkins, Finer, and Landesman—these three should remain in featured roles, and I could see the coaches experimenting with several different starting O-lines early in the season. This unit has loads of talent, but they struggled to find an identity last year; they’re going to have to gel quickly if they plan to overtake Salt Lake in the West.

5. Atlanta Hustle
Projected starting O-line: Hayden Austin-Knab, Karl Ekwurtzel, Brett Hulsmeyer, Bobby Ley, Christian Olsen, Matt Smith, Austin Taylor

There are some question marks with the Atlanta Hustle cutting corps without Mischa Freystaetter, Max Thorne, and Liam Haberfield on this year’s roster, but it’s hard to not like the Hustle O-line given how they’ve developed in recent years. No longer overly reliant on hucks and big plays, Atlanta has settled into a nicely balanced offense with strong throwers that know how to pick their spots. Austin Taylor and Bobby Ley are still going to air it out, but the versatile play of guys like Brett Hulsmeyer, Christian Olsen, and Matt Smith give this group plenty of options each possession on how they’re going to attack the defense. Hayden Austin-Knab is a name to watch this year to potentially fill in some of that hybrid production vacated by Thorne and Haberfield; Austin-Knab has played 70 percent of his pro points on O-line over 14 career games, even though he was mostly deployed as a matchup defender in 2023.

4. Carolina Flyers 
Projected starting O-line: Jacob Fairfax, Henry Fisher, Anders Juengst, Allan Laviolette, Elijah Long, Trevor Lynch, Sol Yanuck

If you swap in Terrence Mitchell for Trevor Lynch (which is an option), this is basically the Flyers’ 2021 Championship lineup, just with Elijah Long instead of Matt Gouchoe-Hanas; MGH is not currently listed on the Flyers roster for 2024. Joe White is the other notable loss, but the returns of Henry Fisher and Allan Laviolette should have Flyers fans excited for the new season after struggling to find an offensive identity in 2023. This line has the ability to find the right balance of big throws, consistent downfield cutting, and reliable handler movement to lead the Flyers back to Championship Weekend. If they can field this top seven for the bulk of their games and get back the consistency that disappeared last year, Carolina could make a deep playoff run in 2024.

3. DC Breeze
Projected starting O-line: Thomas Edmonds, Cole Jurek, Jonny Malks, Rowan McDonnell, Tyler Monroe, Jacques Nissen, Andrew Roy

While their playmaking potential could be down a bit without Christian Boxley or Ben Oort, this DC Breeze O-line should continue to be about as consistent as they come. They finished with the second best O-line conversion rate last year, and they’re the only team that’s ever converted at least 60 percent of their possessions in three straight seasons. We’ll see what they decide to do with Rowan McDonnell this year after experimenting with him on defense last year, but either way this offense will be in good hands with a strong core of hybrids that excel at keeping the disc moving. Jeff Wodatch and Kevin Healey should continue to mix in with the above seven depending on week-to-week availability, and the Breeze will continue to boast one of the deeper lineups despite their two key losses. 

2. Salt Lake Shred
Projected starting O-line: Sean Connole, Jace Duennebeil, Grant Lindsley, Elijah Jaime, Jacob Miller, Jordan Kerr, Luke Yorgason

After converting just nine possessions in last year’s Championship Game, the Salt Lake Shred O-line will look to bounce back in 2024 with another year of experience under their belt. On paper, one could make the argument that this is the best O-line in the league heading into the new season. Salt Lake had nine players that played at least 180 O-points last year—McKay Yorgason, Will Selfridge, and the seven above—and all nine are returning for 2024. This unit converted 62.7 percent of their possessions last year, best in the league and good for a top 10 season all-time despite the new pulling rules stifling offensive efficiency across the league. With the majority of these guys showing vast improvement from 2022 to 2023, there’s loads of potential with this young group that only stands to get better playing with a two-time UFA champ in Grant Lindsley and MVP candidate Jordan Kerr.

1. New York Empire
Projected starting O-line: Elliott Chartock, Oliver Chartock, Ben Jagt, Ryan Osgar, Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey, Jack Williams, Charles Weinberg

As of Monday’s official roster release, reigning MVP Jeff Babbitt is not listed on the New York Empire roster for 2024. Paired with the departure of John Lithio, these would be detrimental offseason losses for any other team. But as we saw in the 2023 East Division Championship Game when both Babbitt and Lithio were absent, the Empire moved two-time MVP Ben Jagt back over to O-line, Oliver Chartock stepped in for Lithio, and the Empire set a new UFA record for fewest turnovers in a game. This is simply an O-line that shows no weaknesses; they demoralize opponents with big plays while at the same time being totally content to play the most patient, boring ultimate you’ve ever seen. We’ll see if Babbitt ends up signing in the next month, and whether New York picks up anyone else (as they tend to do each year), but regardless, they should be feeling as confident as ever with the best starting seven in the league.