Top 25 Players Of The 2024 UFA Season


April 26, 2024
By Evan Lepler

Happy Opening Day, everyone! 

And with that warm welcome out of the way, who’s ready for an argument?

For the second year in a row, we have tasked some of the UFA’s most astute insiders to create their own top 25 player rankings on the precipice of the new season. It’s always a challenging exercise, trying to assess and define individual excellence within a truly team sport. It’s also interesting to note that two insightful and knowledgeable ultimate analysts might have two very different looking lists, and it does not necessarily mean one person definitively got it wrong. 

Here was the official prompt: 

Who are the top 25 players in the UFA heading into the 2024 season? 

All players currently on 2024 rosters are eligible. (Technically, practice players are NOT on rosters.) 

You're selecting based upon who helps you win this year and this year only. As much as you can, think about players independently from their teammates. You're starting a team with each player on the list individually. 

For the sake of the exercise, let's say that availability is not a factor; assume that each player is available as long as they are healthy. (With that said, I think we should assume that Ryan Osgar is not playing since he's been public about that, but for players on National Teams who may miss time, let's not factor in those anticipated absences.)

Here were the panelists:
Daniel Cohen
Charlie Eisenhood
Evan Lepler
Alex Rubin
Adam Ruffner
Ian Toner

If you’re interested, here’s last year’s Top 25.

And without further adieu, here are the 2024 results.

1. Jack Williams, New York Empire - 145
2. Jeff Babbitt, Boston Glory - 139
3. Ben Jagt, New York Empire - 135
4. Joe White, Chicago Union - 126
5. Jordan Kerr, Salt Lake Shred - 109
6. Quinn Finer, Colorado Summit - 104
7. John Randolph, New York Empire - 101
8. Jonny Malks, DC Breeze - 96
9. Brett Hulsmeyer, Atlanta Hustle - 95
10. Pawel Janas, Los Angeles Aviators - 82
11. Rowan McDonnell, DC Breeze - 71
12. Kyle Henke, Austin Sol - 68
13. Antoine Davis, New York Empire - 62
14. Alex Atkins, Colorado Summit - 60
15. Khalif El-Salaam, Seattle Cascades - 59
T-16. Jacob Fairfax, Carolina Flyers - 47
T-16 Sean McDougall, Los Angeles Aviators - 47
18. Jonathan Nethercutt, Colorado Summit - 40
19. Grant Lindsley, Salt Lake Shred - 38
20. Evan Swiatek, Austin Sol - 34
21. Anders Juengst, Carolina Flyers - 26
T-22. Travis Dunn, San Diego Growlers - 25
T-22. AJ Merriman, DC Breeze - 25
24. Thomas Edmonds, DC Breeze - 24
25. Sol Yanuck, Carolina Flyers - 22

Also receiving votes: Orion Cable, Boston Glory (19); Lucas Ambrose, Seattle Cascades (18); Aidan Downey, Atlanta Hustle (17); Max Sheppard, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds (15); Justin Burnett, Atlanta Hustle (13); Paul Owens, Philadelphia Phoenix (12); Austin Taylor, Atlanta Hustle (11); Elliot Bonnet, DC Breeze (7); Bryan Vohnoutka, Minnesota Wind Chill (7); Will Selfridge, Salt Lake Shred (6); Ben Katz, Boston Glory (4); Dylan DeClerck, Minnesota Wind Chill (3); Cole Jurek, DC Breeze (3),; Eli Kerns, Oakland Spiders (3); John Lithio, Chicago Union (3); McKay Yorgason, Salt Lake Shred (3); Tobe Decraene, Montreal Royal (2); James Pollard, Philadelphia Phoenix (2); Paul Krenik, Minnesota Wind Chill (1); Sean Mott, Philadelphia Phoenix (1); Joey Wylie, Austin Sol (1)

Ten Takeaways

  1. Across the six ballots, 46 different players received at least one vote; only 12 players were ranked on every ballot. 

  2. Only 12 of the UFA’s 24 teams have a player in the top 25, however 10 different teams have someone ranked among the league’s top 12 players.

  3. There were 17 different teams that had a player receive at least one vote; no one from Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Madison, Portland, or Toronto appeared on a ballot.

  4. Two-time reigning champion New York has four players in the top 25, as do the DC Breeze.

  5. Carolina and Colorado each have three players in the top 25, while Austin, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake have two apiece. 

  6. Only five members who were in last year’s top 10—Williams, Babbitt, Jagt, Malks, and Janas—are also in this year’s top 10. 

  7. Fifteen of the players in this year’s top 25 were also ranked in last year’s top 25.

  8. Only two of the top 25 players are joining new teams this year, but those two players are #2 Jeff Babbitt and #4 Joe White.

  9. The oldest player in the top 25, holding the distinction for the second straight year, is Salt Lake’s Grant Lindsley, who turns 35 in May. (Rowan McDonnell turns 35 in June.)

  10. The youngest player in the top 25 is DC’s AJ Merriman, who turns 24 in June. His Breeze teammate, Jonny Malks, is the youngest in the top 10, having just turned 25 in January.