The Alliance of American Football kicked off this past weekend and produced incredible ratings with four debut games. We saw big hits, creative plays and familiar faces as the eight-team league started its first season. There will be nine more weeks of AAF action, plus playoffs, which extend the season to April 27. After every week, we'll take a look at the results and rank each team based on performance. AAF REVIEW: Surprising new league is worth watching First, the scores from Week 1: — Orlando 40, Atlanta 6 — San Antonio 15, San Diego 6 — Birmingham 26, Memphis 0 — Arizona 38, Salt Lake 22 AAF Power Rankings 1. Orlando Apollos The Apollos put up a league-high 40 points in their win over Atlanta, but even more impressive is the fact that they did it while holding the Legends to just six points. They showcased an impressive offense (363 yards, third best from the weekend) led by QB Garrett Gilbert who threw and caught a touchdown pass in the opening game. Terence Garvin had an incredible night on defense, finishing with eight total tackles and two interceptions, one of which went for a touchdown. Terence Garvin pick six pic.twitter.com/hm3b1PiAdU — Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) February 10, 2019 Orlando was solid on both sides of the ball, giving them the top spot for this week. 2. Birmingham Iron The Iron took a while to get going on offense, but 2012 first-round NFL Draft pick Trent Richardson put on a decent performance, rushing for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Receiver Quinton Patton was impressive, finishing with 107 receiving yards. But offense is not what gives Birmingham the No. 2 spot. The Iron completed the only shutout of the weekend (and therefore the only shutout in league history). Jonathan Massaquoi led the way with a team-high five tackles, including two sacks. The Iron also finished the game with two interceptions. 3. Arizona Hotshots The No. 2 spot was a close call between the Iron and Hotshots. While the Iron made their case with defense, the Hotshots were all about offense, finishing with a league-high 416 yards. Quarterback John Wolford leads the league in passing yards (275) and passing touchdowns (4), which helped Arizona in its 38-22 victory. The AAF pushes offense more than anything, so this is good sign of things to come in Arizona. 4. San Antonio Commanders The Commanders were the fourth team to pull off a win, and they did so with a solid offense that put up 364 yards (second most of the weekend). San Antonio had a solid three-way rushing attack going with Aaron Green (43), Kenneth Farrow (37) and David Cobb (36). But while San Antonio put up good offensive numbers, the team struggled to finish drives. Quarterback Logan Woodside had no touchdowns with two interceptions, and the offense as a whole was only able to find the end zone once. The defense stepped in and played well, finishing with six sacks (which is impressive considering AAF teams are only allowed to rush five defenders) and three interceptions. The Commanders also came away with the best highlight of the weekend. 5. Salt Lake Stallions The Stallions put up the most points among all the losing teams, although it wasn't overly impressive. Quarterback Josh Woodrum struggled, completing less than half of his passes before being replaced by backup Matt Linehan. The Stallions also struggled in the run game, as Joel Bouagnon got a team-high 16 carries but finished with only 39 yards. Salt Lake should consider using Branden Oliver a little more, as he was able to get more yards (40) on half the attempts (8). There's nothing overly impressive about the Stallions after Week 1, but they were able to put up points despite some struggles. 6. San Diego Fleet The Fleet only managed to score six points, but that might because they let the Mike Bercovici era last a little too long. San Diego eventually benched the quarterback in favor of Philip Nelson, although neither passer was able to accomplish much. But the Fleet did have success on the ground, averaging a collective 6.2 yards per carry on 16 attempts. Ja'Quan Gardner led the way with 55 yards on eight carries. Instead, the Fleet threw the ball 35 times and ended up with no scores and three interceptions. Maybe Garnder and the ground game will get more attention as the Fleet head into Week 2. 7. Atlanta Legends Michael Vick was hired to be the offensive coordinator for this team, but just two days before the league's debut, it was announced he longer holds that position. Regardless, the offense struggled. Matt Simms was benched for Aaron Murray, and the two quarterbacks combined for three interceptions. There wasn't much luck in the rushing attack, either, as Atlanta averaged 3.3 yards per carry on 24 attempts. If you're hoping the defense got its job done, at least, you're going to be disappointed. The Legends gave up a league-high 40 points. 8. Memphis Express This ranking shouldn't be a surprise. Memphis was the only team that failed to score a point in Week 1. Quarterback Christian Hackenberg struggled, completing 10 of 23 passes for 87 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Memphis finished with a league-low 202 yards on offense. There was a bright spot, however. On defense, DeMarquis Gates led the way with 10 tackles and forced two fumbles, both of which recovered by the defense. The former Ole Miss linebacker put on quite a show and is making a case for an NFL team to sign him. But the Express offense needs to put something together. Zero points in a league that promotes offense is not a good start.<doc-sep>We’re on to Week 2 of the Alliance of American Football. And if you’re still trying to figure this new league out, you don’t have to do it alone. Our experts are here to help you navigate placing your bets and setting your DFS lineups wit h comprehensive coverage of the AAF. Matchup analysis. Injury reports. Picks. Our lead AAF expert Ian Hartitz has every angle of each game covered. Oddsmakers are still getting the hang of the AAF, too. Luckily, the Oddsmaker — Sean Koerner — used his own power ratings to project lines for all four games. Setting Your Fantasy Lineups More Analysis + Commentary<doc-sep>Putting together rankings in only the second week of play is never easy for fantasy football. That much is true tenfold this week in a league that is only entering its second week of existence entirely! We learned a lot about true depth charts at least in the first week of play in the new Alliance of American Football league and got a pretty good idea of which players passed the eye test and others to avoid. Advanced stats are still a little hard to come by for AAF, especially fantasy focused ones with only two platforms offering a place to play. AltFantasySports.com is the home to season-long redraft leagues while Fanball.com has been offering weekly DFS tournaments. Pro Football Focus has made a decent amount of stats available to the public while their own Jeff Ratcliffe has been producing solid content and stats as well. His WR/CB matchup review is a must read and the chart included was helpful when setting my own weekly rankings. NoExtraPoints.com also continues to be the leading independent site and is just beginning to offer content and rankings of their own. Speaking of which, let’s get to the rankings! I haven’t really seen much along the lines of fantasy points allowed tools outside of basic rankings on Fanball so I made some handy charts for reference. These will be more useful once we get about three weeks into the season. With such a small sample size of only one week of play, these stats are really just as much a reflection of the opposing team’s offense as it is the listed team’s actual defensive capabilities. The Commanders and Apollos stood out as the top-two all-around defensive units in Week 1 and while the Birmingham Iron ranked out well, that could be more to do with Memphis struggling as an offense in Week 1 as opposed to the Iron’s actual defensive strengths. Quarterback Production Allowed: Team Comp Att Cmp% Pass Yds Pass TD INT 2PT FPTS Salt Lake 18 29 62.1 275 4 0 2 33.3 Atlanta 16 26 61.5 231 2 0 1 27.9 Arizona 17 35 48.6 159 2 2 1 16.8 Memphis 19 33 57.6 252 0 0 1 13.3 San Antonio 20 35 57.1 244 0 3 0 13.1 San Diego 18 36 50.0 255 0 2 0 11.1 Orlando 19 35 54.3 164 0 3 0 7.4 Birmingham 13 27 48.1 109 0 2 0 4.9 Rankings: Rank Name Matchup 1 Luis Perez (BIR) vs. SLC 2 John Wolford (ARZ) at MEM 3 Philip Nelson (SD) vs. ATL 4 Garrett Gilbert (ORL) at SA 5 Logan Woodside (SA) vs. ORL 6 Aaron Murray (ATL) at SD 7 Christian Hackenberg (MEM) vs. ARZ 8 Matt Linehan (SLC) at BIR 9 Josh Woodrum (SLC) at BIR 10 Mike Bercovici (SD) vs. ATL 11 Matt Simms (ATL) at SD 12 Brandon Silvers (MEM) vs. ARZ While most people are comfortable putting John Wolford back at the number one spot in Week 2, I am going to give a slight edge to Luis Perez. Perez looked fantastic between the 20s in Week 1 but was held without a TD pass. This week Perez gets the SLC team that just allowed Wolford four TDs in Week 1. Wolford should still put up a fight close to the top spot but I’ve got him at QB2 for now. Philip Nelson is someone else I am rather high on this week as he is slated to be under center for the SD Fleet with Berco on the bench. I’m also predicting Aaron Murray taking over the starting job from Matt Simms in Week 2 after he was just awful in the first week of play. The SLC QB situation is another one that could be on shaky ground this week with Linehan showing a slightly more efficient outing than Woodrum in Week 1. Woodrum is also nursing a hamstring injury and was reported day-to-day on Wednesday according to team beat reporter Chantel Buchi. Running Back Production Allowed: Team Rush Yds Y/A Lng Rush TD Rec Tgt Yds Rec TD YScm 2PT RRTD FPTS Memphis 28 71 2.5 10 2 7 11 50 0 121 1 2 33.1 Atlanta 20 121 5.6 31 1 2 5 41 1 162 1 2 32.2 Salt Lake 39 149 3.8 25 0 1 2 30 1 179 2 1 26.6 San Diego 29 116 4.0 21 1 2 3 8 0 124 0 1 20.4 Arizona 28 83 3.0 9 1 1 4 6 0 89 1 1 17.9 Birmingham 24 94 3.9 11 0 3 5 12 0 106 0 0 13.6 Orlando 20 59 3.0 13 0 4 5 18 0 77 0 0 11.7 San Antonio 12 65 5.4 25 0 2 4 17 0 82 0 0 10.2 Rankings: Rank Name Matchup 1 Trent Richardson (BIR) vs. SLC 2 Jhurell Pressley (ARZ) at MEM 3 Ja’Quan Gardner (SD) vs. ATL 4 Zac Stacy (MEM) vs. ARZ 5 Branden Oliver (SLC) at BIR 6 Ladarius Perkins (BIR) vs. SLC 7 Kenneth Farrow II (SA) vs. ORL 8 Akeem Hunt (ORL) at SA 9 Joel Bouagnon (SLC) at BIR 10 D’Ernest Johnson (ORL) at SA 11 Aaron Green (SA) vs. ORL 12 Tarean Folston (ATL) at SD 13 De’Veon Smith (ORL) at SA 14 Justin Stockton (ARZ) at MEM 15 David Cobb (SA) vs. ORL 16 Rajion Neal (MEM) vs. ARZ 17 Matt Asiata (SLC) at BIR 18 Larry Rose III (ARZ) at MEM 19 Terrence Magee (MEM) vs. ARZ 20 Denard Robinson (ATL) at SD 21 Lawrence Pittman (ATL) at SD 22 Terrell Watson (SD) vs. ATL 23 Anthony Manzo-Lewis (MEM) vs. ARZ I’m standing pat at the top-two for running back but outside of there, I see things shaking out differently in a few places this week. Ja’Quan Gardner was one of the few backs who managed to make a dent both on the ground and in the passing game in Week 1. Not only was he utilized in a versatile manner, but he was also efficient managing 7.2 yards per touch. A plush matchup against Atlanta and positive game script should push Gardner’s touch total a bit higher this week and a trip to the end zone could have him even push for overall RB1 numbers. Zac Stacy is another player I’m pushing closer to the top this weekend. Stacy looked great averaging 4.8 YPA on 12 carries in Week 1. While Rajion Neal looks like the preferred option in the passing game, Neal couldn’t produce squat on the ground taking four carries for only three yards. Memphis had all kinds of issues in its passing game in Week 1 which could force the team to overcompensate and lean heavier on the run against an SD Fleet team that gave up over 100 yards on the ground last week. Branden Oliver gets a bump to round out the top-five for me despite a crowded SLC backfield. Joel Bouagnon got all the volume he could handle in Week 1 but only managed 2.4 YPA on his 16 carries. Oliver was used both on the ground and through the air, and he gives the team something both Bouagnon and Matt Asiata cannot with plus versatility. Both D’Ernest Johnson and De’Veon Smith are getting a bump down for me this week while Akeem Hunt moves up the list. As mentioned before, this San Antonio defense looked pretty solid and with such a crowded backfield, touches are at a premium. Hunt not only out-touched both Johnson and Smith in Week 1, but he did it efficiently averaging 7.3 YPA. The bottom half of the ranks shouldn’t change too much in my opinion with most of these guys looking to have pretty concrete roles as change-of-pace options with limited touch upside. Asiata and Rajion Neal are the only two I could see making a bigger jump up the rankings. Neal’s heavy usage in the passing game could pile up the points in PPR formats while Asiata could rank highly if he takes over as the official goal-line back. Wide Receiver Production Allowed:<doc-sep>
AAF Week 2 Betting Preview: Odds, Picks And Power Rankings @AAFFleet The Alliance of American Football (AAF) is coming off a successful opening weekend that saw the league record high television ratings for its first-ever games. It was a different story at the betting window. While some sharps jumped on the new league, public bettors stayed away from the AAF. Will that change this weekend? We have everything bettors need to know for Week 2 of the AAF including power rankings, future odds, game lines and picks. ‚Äč Public waiting to bet on the AAF The sportsbooks we spoke to report a modest betting handle from the first weekend of AAF games. While some sportsbooks did a little better than expected, every oddsmaker said the same thing. It was all sharp money last weekend. The public sat back to watch the new league first before betting money on it. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook took less than $10,000 of action on each game. Derek Wilkinson, sportsbook supervisor at the SuperBook said the amount of money wagered on AAF games was similar to a mid-level college basketball game. “I think over the next couple of weeks we’ll see the public start betting it more,” Wilkinson told RotoGrinders. “The first week was almost no public action. It was all wiseguys trying to pick off numbers. I’m anticipating a higher handle over the next couple of weeks. Sharps are always looking for an advantage so a new league with new teams, they’re going to jump all over it any chance they get.” One big difference in the Week 2 lines is the totals aren’t nearly as high. Each game opened with a total in the 50s for Week 1 but after three teams failed to score a touchdown, the numbers predictably dropped. Many books saw more action on the totals than sides last weekend with sharps betting unders. “We were anticipating a lot more scoring the first weekend,” said Wilkinson. “When we were watching the first two games on Saturday, we noticed the totals dropping for Sunday. A lot of sharps were hitting the unders. I do think the totals will start evening out though and rise to where we anticipated the first week.” Favorites went 4-0 SU and ATS in Week 1, while three of the four games came in under the total. Will we see a similar trend in Week 2 or is there value taking underdogs and overs? We have power rankings, future odds and game picks to get you ready for the second weekend of AAF betting. You can also play daily fantasy AAF for Week 2 at Fanball. RotoGrinders has player projections for each position. To read a complete breakdown of or Week 2 power rankings, click here. All lines/odds referenced herein from the Las Vegas Westgate Superbook. Power Rankings and Future Odds 1. Arizona Hotshots (+200) 2. Orlando Apollos (+200) 3. Birmingham Iron (+600) 4. San Antonio Commanders (+600) 5. Salt Lake Stallions (+800) 6. San Diego Fleet (+1200) 7. Memphis Express (+4000) 8. Atlanta Legends (+4000) Overview: Arizona opened as the +250 favorite to win the league. The Hotshots move to +200 after their impressive 38-22 opening day win over Salt Lake. Orlando opened +500 to win the league but are now the co-favorites with Arizona after the Apollos blew out Atlanta 40-6 in Week 1. One of week’s biggest movers is Birmingham. The Iron were tied for the longest odds to win the AFF at +1000 before the start of the season. Following Birmingham’s Week 1 26-0 demolition of Memphis and Christian Hackenberg, the Iron moved to +600. Two other teams sitting at +600 are Salt Lake and San Antonio. Both teams are worth a look at that price. San Antonio defeated San Diego 15-6 in Week 1. The Commanders’ defense is one of the better units in the AAF, while their offense came along in the second half after a slow start. Salt Lake lost in Arizona but the Hotshots look like the best team in the league. The Stallions trailed just 19-16 before Arizona blew the game open in the fourth quarter. Salt Lake plays Birmingham this weekend in a matchup of my third and fifth ranked teams. If the Stallions pull the upset, their odds will drop to around +400 next week. Last week I recommended playing the Fleet +1000 to win the league, suggestion they are a boom or bust team worth a wager.