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AAF Power Rankings, Week 5: Apollos, Iron the class of the league

By Cody Williams

GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 01: Steve Spurrier watches warmups prior to the game between the Florida Gators and the Charleston Southern Buccaneers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 01: Steve Spurrier watches warmups prior to the game between the Florida Gators and the Charleston Southern Buccaneers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Entering Week 5 of the AAF season, the Orlando Apollos and Birmingham Iron are clearly the class of the league ahead of their matchup against one another.

Four weeks of the first-ever AAF season are in the books now and things are certainly start to take shop, at least in the top tier of the Alliance of American Football. Two teams have separated themselves from the pack, the Orlando Apollos and the Birmingham Iron. Entering Week 5, the pair stands as the only teams with record over .500.

The rest of the AAF, however, is a different story altogether. Six of the eight teams in the league come into the fifth week of the season with a 2-2 or 1-3 record. After this past weekend, though, no team in The Alliance is currently winless. That’s both a sign of parity and a sign of things taking shape as the season wears on.

With big changes shaking up the league in a big way, things could go a lot of different ways in the coming weeks, starting with Week 5. Before the action, though, let’s take a look at the latest AAF power rankings and how the eight teams stack up against one another.

8. Atlanta Legends (1-3)

The Atlanta Legends tasted victory for the first time in franchise history this past week, picking up a shocking win over the Arizona Hotshots. Not only has this team seemingly started to improve with each week, but they made a change at quarterback, putting Aaron Murray in over Matt Simms in Week 4, that dramatically changed their fortunes.

Murray came in against Arizona and truly sparked the team. The former Georgia Bulldog ended the day with 254 yards passing and as the team’s leading rusher with 54 yards, though he failed to score in either capacity. While the offense needs to clearly get better schematically moving forward given their red zone struggles, they are taking steps forward on both sides of the ball, which bodes will for them looking ahead.

7. Salt Lake Stallions (1-3)

If Murray can truly spark the Legends to getting to another gear and if they can clear things up on the coaching side of things, the Salt Lake Stallions could very well drop to the bottom of The Alliance power rankings in the coming weeks. With a 20-11 loss to the Orlando Apollos this past week, they moved to just 1-3 on the season and have very little about their team that inspires confidence.

The Stallions defense has been fine, but is clearly not one of the best units in the league by any measure. Even worse is their offense as neither quarterback Josh Woodrum or running backs Branden Oliver and Joe Bouagnon have been able to find consistent success with trying to move the ball. Unless they get a spark of their own, this could be a long 2019 campaign in Salt Lake.

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