The Whips are the future, Asher Nolting might need a new home, and Brennan O'Neill is the assists leader. PLL Week 3 overreactions

The Whips are ahead of the curve

Maryland 2-0 on their homecoming weekend. It’s the second time they’ve pulled that off since it became a thing in 2024. The rest of the league combined has done in twice. Maryland’s friday night execution against Boston was as good as I’ve ever seen in the PLL. I know we’re doing overreactions, but that’s just a fact. The ball was humming, players were moving. Coach Stagnitta pointed out postgame that even when they made a mistake, they made up for it with sheer hustle and hard work. It was impressive. The Whipsnakes are at the cutting edge at something of a shift in the way offense is being played in the PLL. Stags pointed out that a few seasons ago, PLL offenses were defined by wing dodgers. For the Whips it was with guys like Zed Williams and Matt Rambo. But teams caught up. As teams added bigger, stronger defenders to handle physical wing dodgers, playing offense that way was just pushing a boulder up a hill. The Whips have been rebuilding the way their offense works. It’s a constant motion of both players and the ball. And defenses who show up ready to play a physical game against the Whips will instead be met with speed and precision. Maryland is a matador right now, gracefully side stepping aggression and constantly staying a step ahead with agility and balance. Four players are currently tied for the league lead in assists, two are Whipsnakes. And one is Joey Spallina after two games. Five players in the PLL have 90 passes completed to this point, four of them are Whipsnakes (Aidan Caroll, Matt Brandau, TJ Malone, and Rob Pannell).

The Waterdogs need a midfield

Last week the Waterdogs lost to Boston 19-5, getting a total of three goals (Connor Kelly two pointer and Thomas McConvey one) from their midfield. Philadelphia lost to Carolina on Saturday night 10-8. While they got CJ Kirst back in the lineup, and he immediately had an impact registering five points, the Dogs midfield was all but invisible. McConvey had the only goal from a midfielder, Zach Currier and Josh Yago each had an assist. Jack Hannah was scoreless and only had 18 touches, Kelly also was scoreless. A total of 215 touches were registered by Philly’s offensive personnel. 57% of those touches were Kirst, Michael Sowers, and Kieran McArdle. That means McConvey, Currier, Yago, Hannah, and Kelly combined for less than half the offensive touches. Just to contrast, let’s compare that to the Whips offensive performance from Friday night (what I’d consider a gold standard performance to this point in the year). Their offensive personnel had 218 total touches. The starting attack of Spallina, Pannell, and Malone had 46% of the touches. The Whips had six players with 30+ touches on Friday, the Dogs had three, their starting attack. Post game, Coach Tierney pointed out that the offense is meant to work and flow in a way that results with their attack getting the shots and scoring the goals, so it’s not necessarily always a surprise or a bad thing if the midfielders don’t register a lot of goals. I am not a PLL coach or OC, but an imbalance like this doesn’t seem sustainable. Even with an attack as potent as the Waterdogs', some balance needs to be found. A PLL defense showing up and knowing they can focus entirely on one position group in order to win doesn’t feel like a great plan to me.

Asher Nolting has played his last game for the Cannons

Nolting was a scratch for the Cannons over the weekend, the second straight game he’s been out of the lineup in favor of Brian Kelly. This is just how suddenly things happen in the PLL. In 2022, Nolting was a Rookie of the Year finalist. In 2023 and 2024 he was a finalist for MVP and Attackman of the Year. In 2025 he was sixth in the PLL in points and led the league in assists. In 2026, he’s out of the lineup. Blink and you miss it. After the game, Coach Holman said he thinks Kelly is really dialed into the offense, and they really like what they have out there right now. Not exactly a sound byte that would have you believe Nolting would return to the starting attack any time soon. The question now is when will Nolting next appear on a PLL field, and what uniform will he be wearing when he does? Nolting presents a challenge in that he really isn’t a candidate to come out of the box; whatever team deploys him has to do so at attack. I consider Nolting at his best as a feed first player, which means he needs a healthy amount of touches to be effective. This set of criteria effectively eliminates the Cannons, Waterdogs, Whipsnakes, and Outlaws as reasonable landing places. Utah could make sense for the right price to bolster an offense that’s had some early struggles.

Brennan O’Neill will lead the league in…assists?

O’Neill had two assists against New York on Saturday, bringing his total this season to five. Still early, but that’s currently tied with three other players for the league lead. He had a total of eight all of last season and the season before. He has not shot the ball well to start the year; he’s at an abysmal 7.7% through three games. But Denver is 2-1, and getting all sorts of production from Jared Bernhardt and Logan Wisnauskas. O’Neill is finding ways to impact the game right now that are unexpected. Last year’s assist leader, Pat Kavanagh, is still on the PUP List as he heals up from the NLL season, though he should return soon. Without him, the roster was one stacked with scorers but maybe not enough ways to distribute the ball. Enter O’Neill. What’s more, his five assists are on 11 assist opportunities. When Brennan finds you, it’s in a place where you can score. I remain unconcerned about the low shooting numbers to start. His first four games last year were also not good from a shooting perspective, then he rattled off five straight games over 33%. He’s too good to stay in a shooting slump all year. O’Neill’s playing within the offense and finding the right play consistently isn’t something new. What’s new is that with him, dodging to score is historically the right play for him all the time. While the Outlaws work towards being whole and having all their tools, O’Neill the feeder has emerged.