After the Chaos eliminated the Archers from the playoffs for the third consecutive season in 2022, it was time for the Archers organization to look to the future. 

The club had gone 19-14 in the regular season through the first four years of its existence. Of the PLL’s original six teams, the Archers’ 54.3% win rate was second only to the two-time champion Whipsnakes. But they couldn’t break through in the postseason, repeatedly falling to lower-seeded teams. 

The talent was there. With an offense consisting of all-time greats including Tom Schreiber, Marcus Holman, Will Manny, Grant Ament and more, and a defense with legends such as Dominique Alexander, Scott Ratliff and Adam Ghitelman, the Archers were one of the best teams in the league on paper. 

The fit, though, wasn’t quite right. Even though the offense had an array of pinpoint passers and deadly shooters, when the playoffs came and defenses forced the Archers to win individual matchups, they struggled. 

Especially against the Chaos defense, which repeatedly double-poled the club’s midfield and shorted Holman or Manny, the Archers didn’t have enough answers to overcome such a bespoke game plan in the postseason. In the Archers’ three consecutive postseason defeats to Carolina, they scored just 8.7 points per game.

“Our bugaboo in the playoffs … were the Chaos,” Utah assistant coach Brian Kavanagh said. “It always seemed that our offense couldn't really solve [their strategy]. Really, it was making us win matchups without slides.” 

After watching the Chaos short-stick their attackmen and win by staying home for the third year running, the Archers knew they needed to shake things up moving forward.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result,” Kavanagh said. “It got to a point where a change was necessary for us to feel good about rolling the dice again the next year.”

One attractive answer to the club’s offensive woes came in Chaos free agent Mac O’Keefe. 

In fact, when head coach and general manager Chris Bates walked out of his hotel in Washington, D.C., after the 2022 semifinal loss to the Chaos, O’Keefe was standing in the lobby. While the open discussion period and free agency were still months away, Bates smiled to himself knowing that O’Keefe could be a missing piece for Utah’s offensive puzzle.

After graduating from Penn State in 2021 as the NCAA’s all-time leading goal-scorer, O’Keefe played midfield during his two seasons with the Chaos. He won a PLL title as a rookie before getting back to the championship his second year. So, while he enjoyed his time with the Chaos, O’Keefe anticipated hitting free agency the following spring with the goal of finding a spot as a starting attackman. 

“I was looking to play attack,” he said recently. “That’s for sure.” 

That, plus O’Keefe’s well-documented relationship with Ament, made the Archers an appealing fit. 

When COVID cut their senior season at Penn State short in 2020, Ament left for the pros and the duo lost out on chasing a title together with the preseason No. 1 ranked Nittany Lions. So, pairing up with Ament again in 2023 with the opportunity to hunt a ring was a special opportunity for O’Keefe.

“That was a massive component,” O’Keefe said. “Ever since college, we kind of just discussed what it would be like if we were able to play at the next level. And, while we were at Penn State, we never achieved the ultimate goal in a national championship. We won Big Ten championships together and won a bunch of big games, but we never were able to win it all.

When the open discussion period began the following February, O’Keefe was Bates’ first call at 12:00 p.m. sharp. He made it clear that the Archers wanted O’Keefe to be an integral piece in chasing the club’s first title.

“He was important just for obvious reasons,” Bates explained. “His ability to stretch the field, his ability to just put the ball in the back of the net.” 

“I knew after that call it would probably end up being with the Archers,” O’Keefe said of his free agency destination.

The lefty sharpshooter officially signed on March 7, reuniting with Ament and further solidifying Utah’s youth movement.

O’Keefe’s addition brought with it the subtraction of the Bunk Bed Boys. 

Holman – whom the Archers offered a contract to return – left for an opportunity to play for his father Brian with the Cannons, signing his new deal on March 6. Manny followed him out the door, signing with the Whipsnakes the same day. Both thrived at their next stops, yet getting younger and more diverse at attack was a move Utah believes set it up for the successes to come. 

“Even though both guys are great at their job, I don’t know if our offense totally was built to win a championship,” Kavanagh said of the Archers’ offense through the team’s first four seasons.

“Tough decisions obviously had to be made,” he added. “Sometimes just a shake-up gets everybody focused. I’m never going to say a negative thing about Will or Marcus individually or together. Love those guys, and I still think we had opportunities to win in those first four years.”

“Mac could stretch the field a little,” Bates added. “Mac is a little bit younger, probably a little bit more athletic, a little bit better on the dodge at this stage. So, yeah, we felt like we were gaining all that as sort of the next iteration of Archers offense.” 

Since signing, O’Keefe has been electric with 72 points through 24 games (3.0 per game) as an Archer. The Archers won the Cash App Championship in his first season, and in the 2024 semifinals, he and Ament led Utah with three points apiece as they toppled the Chaos in the postseason for the first time. A week later, O’Keefe was the club’s leading scorer in the title game for the second year running as he won his third ring in four seasons.

Now, O’Keefe and Ament spearhead Utah’s revamped lineup that is looking to take the Championship Series by storm. In their first action next week, the Archers will face off against none other than Holman and Manny’s Boston Cannons. 

Unfortunately, an injury will hold Manny out of the lineup for the Cannons. Yet the Utah-Boston relationships are still strong, with Jeff Trainor and Ghitelman also among the former Archers who joined the Cannons in 2023. 

The Cannons have been a good team and an awesome story since Holman left to help build the culture with his father. Manny has had individual success, leading the Whipsnakes in scoring in 2023. Both players are legends of the game.

Yet the moves the Archers made in the 2023 offseason suggest just how fine a line there is between being good and great in the PLL. From 2019 through 2022, the Archers were good. Since 2023, they’ve been great and are on the verge of becoming a dynasty. 

That all started when Bates called O’Keefe from his Champ Series hotel.