The 2025 IFL season has been the most parody-ridden season we have seen in years. The league is in a healthy spot and no one is complaining about how competitive this year has been. Weeks 13 & 14 saw several bottom-of-the-standings squads upset one and two-seed level competition.
Late season surges by Mass and Fishers have helped shake up the standings along with key Injuries at skill positions for teams that seemed to be on top of their game. As we see it every team in the IFL fits into one of four categories and we will explore why they belong, how they got there, and how we see the final three or four games going for them, from worst category to best!
Table of Contents
IFL Bottom Feeders:
Iowa Barnstormers (1-12)
Iowa is experiencing what could be the worst season in franchise history. The pass-heavy offense has been predictable throughout the season, only averaging 14.8 rushing yards a game. Intern the Barnstormers have seen competitive first halves followed by interception-heavy second halves. Defense hasn’t been much better, giving up 88 to Vegas.
Head Coach, Dave Mogenson, has slowly declined since taking over in 2022. The 18-42 record can only make us think he won’t be around after this season The final four games of the 2025 IFL Season won’t show any mercy to the Barnstormers, look for this team to finish with only 1 win looking for a new head play caller.
Northern Arizona Wranglers (1-12)
The Ron James led squad has struggled this year and no relief is in sight. NAZ is a perfect storm of offense that can’t consistently put together a drive and a defense that can’t get off the field. All be it they have had close games most are over in the third quarter.
Quarterback play has been shaky as of late, putting up the lowest TD total in the league with only 51 across 13 games! Just like Iowa, this team has never been able to find its identity and the record shows just that. Stats could be thrown around to show just how bad this squad is, but the 1-12 record speaks for itself. Hopefully a second year behind James (if he gets to year two) will show more promise.
Out but Still Fighting Their Way Toward the IFL Playoffs
Fishers Freight (4-9)
The Freight has been either on fire or completely off the rails. The 2025 expansion team started off 2-0 before a 9 game skid that wouldn’t end until a mind-blowing upset over Green Bay. Prior to recent signing of Vincent Espinoza Quarterback turnover has haunted this team, the bright spot!? A solid ground game as Fisher’s has two of the league’s top four rushers in Jiya Wright and Carlos Davis.
The pair has totaled over 600 yards and 16 touchdowns in 10 games played. Week 15 saw Fisher’s defense shine with a 33-7 lockdown of Tulsa. Despite the 4-9 record, the Dixie Wooten lead franchise has a chance to end their inaugural season on a bit of a positive note, as they draw Iowa in two of the last three games. It took 11 weeks for the Freight to find their groove, They won’t make the playoffs but if Wooten sticks around this team can be very competitive in 2026.
San Antonio GunSlingers (3-9)
A couple of key upsets are the only thing between the Gunslingers and 0-12. The run game has been very average, while the shiny spot on the offense has been over 2100 passing yards through three separate quarterbacks. The ground game hasn’t been there for San Antonio in 2025.
However, it has been for opponents giving up over 1000 rushing yards to this point in the season. With four games to go, outside of the season finale against NAZ, don’t look for many more wins from the GunSlingers. 4-12 is a likely finish, with plenty of questions on both sides of the ball heading into the off-season
Fighting for 4th in the IFL
Tulsa Oilers (7-6)
The Oilers started off 1-2 before reeling off five consecutive wins. The win streak includes wins over Quad City and Green Bay. A decent running game, mostly led by their QB TJ Edwards(590 Rushing yards), and fill-in RB/QB Hassan Rodgers. Tulsa had plenty of reasons to be excited about the franchise’s first playoff run before a brutal season-ending injury to Edwards late in the Mass game.
The pass game suffered the following week with three interceptions and a franchise low 7 points in four quarters. Recent quarterback signing Kobe Garson saw limited playing time in the 33-7 drubbing. Still solid is the defense, ranking in the top half of almost every defensive category the IFL keeps up with. If questions aren’t answered on the offense I would expect Tulsa to drop its final three and be on the outside looking in come playoff time, Definitely check out their match-up with the next team on this list in week 17.
Mass Pirates (7-6))
Mass is where things start to get interesting in the IFL playoff picture. The Kenny Bahar to Teo Redding combo has come on strong in the second half of the season, the pair amassing 466 yards and 9 touchdowns alone. The Pirates started their ‘25 campaign off 2-5 before reeling off four straight.
Last week’s win puts them at 7-6. Despite the Quad City loss, Mass can win their way into the playoffs as they currently sit at fifth behind a Tulsa squad that is falling fast. If they can pair a regular season split with Green Bay, with a regular season sweep of Tulsa this will be a dangerous playoff team. Our prediction? They’re gearing up after week 18 for a dog fight against whoever winds up with the one seed.
Tucson Sugar Skulls (5-7)
Out of the four teams in the “fighting for fourth” section, this one barely made it, at 5-7 things look bleak but they are still alive. The offense has had its ups and downs but you can’t win if you can’t stop anyone, especially shown in last Sunday’s matchup with Vegas. A game that hurt to watch, catch up, and fall back all game unable to ever make a true stop that wasn’t a turnover in the second half.
Short yardage situations and a good deep threat will beat this team in most situations, giving up 31 rushing and 32 passing TDs in 12 games. If the defense can find a way to make stops in the second half there is a chance, but most of the time it isn’t the case. Jorge Reyna 23-6 INT-TD ratio paired with decent mobility has helped late in the season… but the late-season surge won’t be enough, with a tough final four games(and overall schedule) look for the Sugar Skulls to be sitting at home with Tulsa after the final week of the IFL season wraps up.
Vegas Knight Hawks (8-5))
Depending on when you tuned into the IFL season you may have thought Vegas was on top of the Western Conference or bracing for a 10-loss season… as of late!? They are surging! Currently riding a three-game win streak into the final three games. Vegas is also the only team to have two players who individually have over 300 yards rushing in Ja’Rome Johnson and Antonio Wimbush.
The defense hasn’t been world beaters but they have been consistent, former Storm DL Claude Davis (also the oldest Knight Hawk player) leads the team with 4.5 sacks on the season. Davis anchors a solid front three that on average allows less than 60 yards of rushing a game. All in all, if you’re going to beat Vegas you have to get creative with schemes, must score more than 55 to be comfortable, and might still need a little late game magic. Look for this squad to take the two seed behind Bay Area. If they can get hot again and stay hot they will be hard for any defense to snub out on the way to the IFL national championship game!
Top Teams in the IFL Just keeping Winning
Jacksonville Sharks (9-4)
What a turnaround season for the boys down in Jacksonville. From 3-13 in 2024 their first season in the IFL, to currently 9-4. Key pieces have been added throughout the season. Tyler Huff… the Jacksonville State product has taken a bite out of the indoor football world since being signed by the Sharks in Week ( ). He is more of a Fullback with throwing accuracy, averaging 6 yards a carry and totaling 15 touchdowns in only five games.
The Front three have also shown promise, especially with KiVon Bennett who leads up the defense in solo sacks at 5. Outside of the Green Bay Blizzard squad (who is fading with each week) in the final week, the back end of the schedule is fairly weak, we fully expect them to be the second seed in the Eastern Conference heading into the first playoff weekend.
Green Bay Blizzard (8-5)
As mentioned before this squad has slowly declined since the midseason mark. As the pattern of success tied to consistent quarterback play continues, Max Meylor is yet another example. In his 12 appearances, he has a league-leading 45 touchdown passes with only 6 interceptions! If he is on, so is Green Bay as a whole, Don’t let the season low against Arizona fool you.
The Defense is another story, the fairly inconsistent squad, has given up the third most TDs in the IFL at a whopping 81( only 7 less than they have scored on offense). Essentially if the Green Bay defense could pull off two more stops a game this squad would be 11-3. Do expect to see them in the bracket but we don’t think you’ll see them go far. The East is a much better group of teams than previous years and with the late-season Blizzard cool down it will be tough to make it more than a half against playoff-level competition.
San Diego Strike Force (8-4)
The Strike Force has played like all of us expect them to play. The resume to this point includes eight wins, two one-score losses, and being swept by arguably the best team in all of the IFL this season. Nate Davis (who’s playing this good at 38) looms around the top of the league with 30 TD passes to 10 interceptions paired with over 1700 yards in 10 games.
On the opposite side of the ball, it’s a similar story, ranking fifth in Red Zone Defense, ranking second in total TDs scored against! San Diego will end the season with the toughest schedule of anyone, as long as they can split the series with a bipolar Arizona squad they should at the very least grab the second seed in the Western Conference.
Arizona Rattlers (8-5)
The Rattlers are a tale of two halves of a season. Coming into the season hot at 4-0 before dropping their second of three matchups against Tucson the loss only seemed to fuel Arizona nabbing the next three for a 7-1 start…since? They dropped three straight including a second loss to Tucson! Rumblings of a mid-season collapse were only silenced in a dominant win over 8-4 Green Bay 48-28.
Similar to San Diego, Arizona has a franchise QB in Dalton Sneed that has kept the offense consistent throughout twelve games, racking up 35 TDs and a staggering 2091 passing yards(but a bad game for Sneed has spelled a loss every single time). The Defense on the other hand is … Average at best, and has cost them in close games ( both Sugar Skull losses). The final two match up’s with with Sad Diego (and which Sneed shows up) will decide who and where, but unless absolute chaos happens.. they will be gearing up for a playoff run.
Locked into the 2025 IFL Playoffs
Quad City Steemwheelers (10-3)
The SteamWheelers are having the best season this franchise has seen since the exit from the CIF. A strong start to the season and a less-than-strong Eastern Conference schedule have done Quad City well!. Led up by Daquan Neal, who has thrown six touchdown passes for every one interception thrown. While Neal isn’t breaking any records, he has been the model of consistency in his eleven games.
KeShaun Moore has been a pivotal part of the defense, racking up 5 sacks (2 against Fishers in a single game) and 18.5 TFL! The secondary for Quad City has also been lock down racking up 16 interceptions. The last three games should give Green Bay the opportunity to tune up the defense and rest anyone who isn’t 100 percent, taking on a Tulsa squad without a consistent QB and the worst team in the IFL in Iowa. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see this team meet the next team on this list in Tucson.
Bay Area Panthers (10-2)
Defense wins championships, offense wins games and Bay Area just wins. If you look at the stats for Bay Area you would envision a 7-6 squad fighting for the third or fourth season in the Western Conference, but they are the top of the league at 10-2. Josh Jones’ 561 yards paired with 14 TDs just on the ground has helped control the pace of many games. Nearly matching yards with Jones, Joshua Tomas also tacks 20 more rushing touchdowns in for a formidable challenge to any defense hoping to get the Panthers off the field.
The dual threat of Tomas and Jones spreads out opposing defenses. The ability to stand tall and throw or take off through the gap has given Bay Area the ability to wear down and control games after half all season long, intern they control the pace of nearly every match-up. The overall talent on this squad is only matched by that of Quad City. They have already punched their ticket to the IFL playoffs, at this point they are playing for home-field advantage.
IFL Playoff Deciding Match Ups:
Week 16
Bay Area At San Diego
Week 17
Mass At Tulsa (Decides 4th Seed)
Vegas At Bay Area
San Diego @ Arizona
Week 18
Mass At Green Bay
Bay Area At Tucson(Must Win for Tucson)
Week 19
Green Bay at Jacksonville
Tulsa At Quad City
Tucson At Vegas*
Arizona At San Diego
*Only Matters if Tucson wins in Week 17
All stats used in this article are pulled directly from:
https://goifl.com/stats.aspx?path=football&year=2025
Check back after week 19 as we will be putting out a preview on each of the first-round playoff matchups before they kick off!
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