June 18, 2026
By Sam Weiger
We are arriving at the final stretch of the 2026 regular season, and each of the following games have significant playoff consequences in their respective divisions.
Salt Lake Shred at Madison Radicals | Friday Night Frisbee
Thursday, June 18 - 8:00 PM/ET - Watch link
NFL fans worldwide know TNF as Thursday Night Football, but this week, frisbee fans get their own version. Welcome to Thursday Night Frisbee!
Host city Madison welcomes Salt Lake for the UFA’s first-ever Thursday game and first Radicals-Shred matchup in league history. Neither team enters this one fully rested after a demanding Week 8, but I expect Madison to have the bigger hangover. While the Shred dealt with a doubleheader last weekend, the Rads are coming off an incredibly grueling Sunday battle with the AlleyCats, so they have just three days to recover. That fatigue may not surface immediately, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Madison hits a wall in the second half of this game. That’s the biggest reason that I am calling Salt Lake the favorite here.
On top of that, there’s trend I’ve noticed from Thursday Night Football: teams love to bounce back on short weeks after a loss, and I expect no different in the UFA. The Shred have underperformed all season and are coming off a loss to a Seattle team they likely believed they could beat. Salt Lake should come out hungry from the opening pull, so a quick early lead wouldn’t surprise me at all. If they look sharper than they have all year in the first quarter, that’s a strong sign for a complete game to follow.
The rowdy Madison atmosphere shouldn’t rattle Salt Lake, who competed at Championship Weekend last year at Breese Stevens Field. With Championship Weekend returning to Madison this season, I have no doubt head coach Bryce Merrill will want his team to show up Thursday night.
In that Championship Weekend appearance, Chad Yorgason was Salt Lake’s most valuable player, and he was their team MVP for the full 2025 season. Running the offense through him as they look to reverse course feels like an obvious call. Yet Yorgason, who was widely expected to build on his 2025 output, is scoring fewer goals per game and throwing less. Could we get a boom game from Yorgason in this primetime showcase?
The Shred could certainly use a big game from an O-liner, as the D-line appears like it will remain depleted. Star defenders Kyle Weinberg, Joe Merrill, Jonny Hoffman, and Sam Pew are expected to miss Thursday’s matchup.
One Big Number:
413.67 - Yorgason is averaging 413.67 yards per game this year, marking a drop of nearly 100 yards per game compared to 2025.
94.46 - Madison’s completion rate this year is 94.46 percent, a big jump from their completion rate last year (92.06 percent).
San Diego Growlers at Austin Sol
Friday, June 19 - 8:00 PM/ET - Watch link
Austin's defensive numbers may be slightly inflated by a favorable schedule, but the improvement is real, and it showed clearly the last time these two teams met in Week 7.
The Sol D-line collectively applied effective pressure, forcing high stall counts and capitalizing on the panicked throws that followed. Seattle had dealt with the same pressure the week prior.
As long as Austin keeps leaning into that strategy, it figures to be a decisive factor once again. San Diego committed 21 turnovers and completed just 92 percent of their passes in that Week 7 meeting, a sharp drop from their 13 turnovers and 95 percent completion rate against Austin in last year's playoffs.
One area where the Growlers held up in both contests was the deep game. They connected on 73 percent of their 11 huck attempts in Week 7 and 83 percent of their 16 in last year's playoffs. But this isn't a San Diego-specific trend, as all playoff-caliber teams have converted their huck attempts at a high clip against the Sol in 2026.
Seattle hit 80 percent of their 10 huck attempts against Austin, and Atlanta converted 82 percent of their 11. Going deep at a higher rate obviously carries great risk and reduces the unpredictability factor, but with the Sol's defense forcing the Growlers to make panicked throws on high stall counts, pushing the pace downfield more could be a smarter play for San Diego than patiently grinding through multiple high stalls.
That makes Brandon Van Deusen worth watching closely. San Diego's premier deep thrower has built a strong reputation over the past two years, but he connected on just two of five huck attempts against Austin in Week 7. Does head coach Kevin Stuart give him the green light to let it fly, or does the offensive gameplan shift? Whatever adjustments, if any, come out of that decision could be pivotal come Friday.
One Big Number:
58.6 - The Sol have the second-highest defensive efficiency rate in the UFA (58.6 percent)
79.29 - Over the past two season, Van Deusen has completed 79.29 percent of his deep shots.
Salt Lake Shred at Minnesota Wind Chill | Friday Night Frisbee
Friday, June 19 - 8:00 PM/ET - Watch link
Sure, Salt Lake has gotten the better of Minnesota in both career meetings — but the Shred has never seen this version of the Wind Chill, who are riding the biggest win of their season into Saturday's matchup.
It wasn't the prettiest win against Oakland last week, but Minnesota might be the league's best team at finding ways to win. What's remarkable is that they were held to a season-low break rate of 15 percent, extended their streak of seven or fewer blocks to four straight games, and still found a way to get the win.
And in the big moments, it keeps coming back to Will Brandt. Dating back to 2023, Brandt has made a habit of saving his best for when it matters most, and last week was no exception. Against Oakland last week, Brandt posted season-highs in total scores, plus/minus, and had clutch late-game plays. He's an automatic watch in any close game, and if this one comes down to the wire, expect him to be right in the middle of it.
Defensively, Minnesota continues to smother opponents through the air. Oakland, one of the more efficient deep-shot offenses in the league, managed just three huck completions against the Chill. But it's worth noting the Spiders haven't been going deep at a high rate this season. Salt Lake is a different story. The Shred attacks deep far more aggressively, but they’ll be dealing with Justin Burnett, Lukas Ambrose, Paul Krenik, and a Minnesota D-line that has made life miserable for deep throwers all year. The expectation is that Salt Lake's O-line looks for other ways to crack open a defense that simply doesn't give up easy scores.
But can the Shred O-line execute the game plan they choose? Salt Lake’s offense is currently on pace for its worst season in franchise history, which is stunning given they’ve played just one game against a top-eight team in defensive efficiency.
It’s hard to imagine this O-line suddenly clicking into gear this weekend without someone sparking a unit that has shown clear signs of decline all season. Will Selfridge filled that role in the past, and without him, the player most overdue for a takeover game is Jordan Kerr.
His impact in the receiving game would be especially welcome, since that’s where Selfridge’s absence has been felt most. Kerr has the speed and field vision that the elite UFA receivers possess. He hasn’t topped 200 receiving yards in a game this season, and while breaking through won’t be easy here, this is exactly the moment where Salt Lake needs him to.
One Big Number:
91.5 - Minnesota has completed 91.5 percent of their passes across two meetings with Salt Lake. The Wind Chill have been much cleaner this season, and that efficiency advantage could prove decisive against a Shred squad that has struggled to match their 2025 form in 2026.
13 - The Shred O-line ranks 13th in the league in Tot-aEC, even worse than their 2024 standing, a season already widely considered the low point of their offensive history.
Chicago Union at Indianapolis AlleyCats
Saturday, June 20 - 6:00 PM/ET - Watch link
Saturday kicks off a six-game stretch that will define Chicago's season: Indy, Madison, Minnesota, Indy, New York, and Madison. Minnesota and New York are stiff tests, but it's the games against Indy and Madison, the two teams directly in Chicago's way for a playoff spot, that carry the real weight. That makes their Week 9 doubleheader against those same two opponents about as high-stakes as it gets for the Union this season.
Chicago dropped their only meeting with the AlleyCats this year and had no answer for Elliot Hawkins in his unforgettable debut, so figuring out how to slow him down is the first order of business on Saturday. Expect heavier pressure on the mark and more double teams directed at Hawkins specifically, it would be stunning if Chicago came in without a targeted plan for him. There's no individual matchup I'll be watching more closely in this one.
What makes it even more interesting is that Hawkins is coming off his worst game of the season. He made big plays and filled the stat sheet, but he was forcing rushed throws all over the field, including a throwaway that directly cost Indianapolis the game against Madison. He finished with a career-worst completion rate of 80.56 percent.
The other variable shadowing the Union all season has been availability. Injuries and absences have kept key contributors Jack Shanahan, Ben Preiss, Jesse Johnson, and Henry Goldenberg off the field for multiple games, but there’s a realistic chance that all four play on Saturday (All currently active except Goldenberg, who is questionable). Nate Astrom, one of Chicago’s most talented playmaking D-liners, is also expected to make his season debut.
One Big Number:
7 - Hawkins committed a career-high seven turnovers against Madison last week. It was the second straight game he’s set a new career mark in turns, so he’s trending in the wrong direction right now.
19 - Astrom recorded 19 blocks in 2024, the second-most of any Union player that season.
Toronto Rush at Seattle Cascades | Game of the Week
Saturday, June 20 - 8:00 PM/ET - Watch link
Toronto and Seattle are both franchises with over a decade of history, and they're finally set to meet. They came within one game of crossing paths twice in past postseasons, making this a matchup that feels long overdue.
Both teams have a lot riding on this one, but for Toronto, it's potentially a massive opportunity to make a serious run in an East Division race nobody expected them to still be alive in this late in the season.
The secret to their run? A forgiving schedule. They entered the season with the second-easiest slate in the league, and they've done their part, beating the opponents they were supposed to beat. That trend should continue Friday against Oregon.
They enter their Pacific Northwest doubleheader with a 4-3 record, with two more winnable games after this weekend against Montreal and Indianapolis, so an 8-4 finish is genuinely within reach. The catch: they play in the toughest division in the league.
New York, Boston, and DC will all likely finish at least 7-5, and each of those teams has a realistic path to 8-4 themselves. Toronto has already lost the tiebreaker with DC and Boston, and would need a 10-goal margin of victory over the Empire to flip that tiebreaker, meaning 7-5 almost certainly isn't enough to get in. This game is as close to a must-win as it gets.
My eyes turn to Max Pettenuzzo as Toronto’s biggest difference-maker. Pettenuzzo, on pace to finish the season on the All-Rookie First Team, has the fourth-most total yards per game of any player in the entire league.
The Seattle player I’ll be watching is Spencer Lofink. He’s had an inconsistent 2026 campaign compared to his career-best 2024 season, but he has posted career highs in throwing yards in back-to-back games and is on pace for a career-best assist total after logging his third five-assist outing in just six appearances, most recently in last week’s win over the Shred. His Tot-aEC and Thrower-aEC ratings were both season highs against Salt Lake, and he hit a season-high Receiver-aEC rating recently as well signaling that his value to the Cascades is showing significant growth.
One Big Number:
70.87 - The Rush have allowed opponents to convert just 70.87 percent of their red zone looks, the second-stingiest rate in the UFA.
73.33 - Seattle has converted only 73.33 percent of their own red zone chances, the fourth-lowest rate in the league this season.
Madison Radicals at Chicago Union
Sunday, June 21 - 7:00 PM/ET - Watch link
What fueled Chicago's biggest win of the year back in Week 7 against the Radicals? It started with their hot start. The Union have made a habit of jumping out to big leads: they raced ahead 9-2 against Madison and even went up 3-0 on Minnesota in their first meeting with the Chill this season. Whether Chicago can come out of the gates firing again is one of the first things I'll be watching for on Saturday.
Chicago’s level of urgency will hinge on their Saturday result, but there’s little doubt they’ll have their hands full with a Radicals squad looking to settle the score after falling to the Union in Week 7, and potentially looking to bounce back if they fall to to Salt Lake on Thursday.
One player I’ll be watching closely is Nico Ranabhat. Despite turning in arguably his quietest outing of the season against Chicago in Week 7. Ranabhat is on pace for a career year, having already set new personal bests in assists, completions, and throwing yards, with a real shot at topping his career receiving yardage mark as well.
That’s the version of Ranabhat I’m curious about. His receiving game was a difference-maker last week against a stout AlleyCats defense, and Madison has enough firepower at handler to keep Ranabhat thriving as a pass-catcher, a role where he torched a top-tier Union squad a season ago for five goals and nearly 250 yards. Keeping Ranabhat in a WR1 role frees Anthony Gutowsky to make a bigger impact on defense. Gutowsky actually spent most of last week on the D-line, the first time we’ve seen that all year.
One Big Number:
381 - Ranabhat posted a career-high 381 receiving yards against Indy last week, nearly 100 more than his previous best.
72.09 - Chicago remains vulnerable to hucks, allowing opponents to complete 72.09 percent of their deep shots. Pittsburgh had no problem going deep against the Union last week.
