European League of Football Way Too Early Power Rankings: The Top 5!

The final five are here. These are the five teams we expect to compete in the European League of Football in 2024.

They represent the pinnacle of European League of American football. All of them are stacked top to bottom and have a mix of talent, experience, and coaching staff.

If you’ve read the previous instalments, you’ll know who the five remaining are.

Nevertheless, let’s get into it.

1. Rhein Fire

The reigning champions are hard to unseat at the top of the ELF. Retentions in key positions with MVP Jadrian Clark, All-Stars in Glen Toonga, Omari Williams, Nick Wiens, Jason Chikere and Patrick Poetsch. The core is built up with established stars in Flamur Simon, Yasir Raji, Sven Breidenbach, Harlan Kwofie and many more. Additions in Darrius Nash, Fabian Weitz and Max Parkinson will keep the Fire in pole position despite some losses on the offensive line. Rhein is stacked from top to bottom on not only the roster but also the coaching staff, with all the headliners remaining in place. It also seems they took it as a personal insult that the Surge scored 34 points in the Championship Game because the defense has been adding pieces left and right all off-season. It’ll be some time until we see the Fire on the losing side of a scoreline.

2. Stuttgart Surge

Stuttgart will be looking to bounce back from their championship loss to the Fire in 2023. The foundations of the offense have been laid already with the re-signing of Yannick Mayr, Darrell Stewart Jr and Louis Geyer who could make up arguably the best, receiver trio in the league. Quarterback Reilly Hennessey will be behind an excellent offensive line featuring multiple all-star potential players in Alessandro Vergani, Francesco Runco, Sven Fischer, and Luca Jokiel.  On defense, Former NFL/CFL player Chris Ezeala is certainly the most recognizable name. The former Baltimore Ravens/Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker/fullback will add to the front seven. On top of that defensive back Marco Vidačković is the latest star. The former Oregon defensive back returns to Germany following his college career. He will be joined in the secondary by Mitch Fettig who returns from last season, and by British speedster, Chad Walrond. Also added to the defense is British former CFL linebackers Simeon Okonta-Wariso and Sasan Jelvani. This team is scary all over the field and is probably in the “championship or bust” category.

3. Wroclaw Panthers

The Panthers are one of the original teams in the ELF and the fact they haven’t won a championship should be enough motivation for the higher-ups. The signings so far have supported this. Keanu Ebanks is one of the best offensive linemen in all of Europe. Adria Botella Moreno is the best tight end in Europe. Dawid Brzozowski and Gennadiy Adams are two of the best running backs in Europe… you get the idea. Steven Duncan is a killer at quarterback and the return of two Polish receivers, Jakub Mazen and Przemslaw Banat and former NFL receiver Matt Cole gives Duncan plenty of options in the passing game. Safety William James and linebacker AJ Wentland return as late additions last season from the Leipzig Kings and Devan Burell also joins at corner and as a kick returner. In fact, Burell may well be the best return specialist in Europe. He had 1800+ yards as a returner and more touchdowns than most receivers. The level of talent of the Polish players has also been a bit of a surprise at times. They have been underrated in some ways and have definitely caught people by surprise.

We shall see with Wroclaw. Their matchups with the Vienna Vikings will be very telling.

4. Paris Musketeers

Paris’ expectations have been sky-high since the inception of the team. This season, they will want to go all for it in the year of the Olympics. Zach Edwards returns at quarterback, but this time his offensive line has gone into overdrive. Thomas Fileccia is a homegrown tackle, Lewis Thomas is one of the best guards in Europe, and Polly Sacramento is an underrated lineman. His receiver corps is loaded. Anthony Mahougou is the best European receiver, Austin Michell is an electric receiver with the potential game-breaking ability, Remi Bertellin is a veteran who has one of the best games ever for a receiver in the ELF and Florian Larose is absolutely in for a breakout year.  Kevin Mwamba joins at tight end and will be a huge addition to their run game. The defense is also full of stars featuring Jordan Avissey, former BuffaloBills defensive lineman, reigning defensive player of the year Maceo Beard, and elite French talents featuring Stanley Zeregbe, Digaan Gomis, and Amir Kilani. The Musketeers have yet to lock in at some positions but they are far from done in loading their team.

5. Munich Ravens

This will ruffle a few feathers in the community. They have been off the radar for a few days recently, but they still have the foundations for a championship run. Chad Jeffries is the best quarterback not named Clark. Leander Weigand and Gerrit Brandt are elite offensive linemen and if Dominik Ondra re-signs then that’s a seriously scary unit. The loss of receiver Markell Castle is a huge hit, but Jon Cole is a solid starter-level American in the ELF. They have retained 2023 all-star Marvin Rutsch who is an excellent complimentary receiver. Then, Lorenz Regler to add additional support to the receiver corps. Running back Tomiwa Oyewo is expected to re-sign with the team. He would be the key to boosting them from the number 5 slot. In this writer’s opinion, he is the best European running back in the league as of now.

Switching to defense, Evans Yeboah is a top 2 defensive tackle who comes in from Hamburg following his former defensive coordinator, Kendral Ellison who will be taking over the team as head coach. Christoph Nitzlnader joins from the Raiders Tirol at corner and key defensive end Johannes Zirngibl will also return. There is still work to be done, hence the lower position, but once they lock in these signings, they’ll rise.

In summary…

With that, the power ranking has been completed. This will undergo some change though. The lower half of the league already has with recent developments. The season is less than 100 days away and I for one, can’t wait.

Until next time