WFL Weekly 5 - Week 1: A Changing of the Guard

The droplets of water fall towards the ground with at a slow, methodic pace.

*drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip*

The Commissioner sits at his desk; The working computer monitor in front of him serving as one of the only light sources, in a room that resembles more of a cave than an office the WFL Commissioner might reside in. Papers are strewn across the once new and organized workstation, with files for each of the WFL’s members haphazardly scattered about. Holding a newspaper in front of him, Commissioner Andy Agudelo shakes his head as he reads over the headlines. "USE OF AI SPLITS WFL FANBASES ACROSS THE COUNTRY" reads one column. "DRAFT PICK TRADING NERFED??" reads another. "WHL BETTER!" reads a smaller opinion column. And the front page headline in big blocky text reads "MESA WANTS OUT. BANG BROS SPLIT AS GM MAKES SHOCKING LEAVE OF ABSENCE." The exasperated Commissioner throws the newspaper behind him with a thud, echoing around the walls. Despite only being in power for a few months, time has already taken its toll on the youngest Commissioner in WFL History. Bloodshot eyes, unkept facial hair, and in desperate need of un fade, Andy does not resemble the man he was when he first stepped into the role of Commissioner.

"Master Andy" a voice calls out. In walks Parker, dressed in suit and tie, who has been assisting Andy and looking after the Commissioner’s estate since he was elected. "You really ought to get some rest, you haven’t slept well as of late. Trying to find him is driving you-"

"I know Parker." Andy says, cutting off Parker as he rises to his feet and walks into the darkness. He flips on a switch and an assortment of lights reveal a map, with pictures, pins, red lines, and scribbled text resembling that of a detective’s work to find a criminal. The face of a familiar Chief Editor sits at the very top.

"These last few months have been nothing short of insanity, and I’d give anything for some positive momentum before the season starts. Is that really too much for me to ask for Parker?" Andy says as he closes his eyes with head in hands. "There has to be something we’re missing. I sent Ale out days ago to check out our best lead yet, and nothing. Now he’s out circling back through the same old places, trying to find this ghost of our past."

Parker sets down a chocolate milk for Andy. He’s heard this same spiel many times before, and he too wonders what could’ve happened to WFL’s Chief Content Creator.

"I’m doing my best to bring justice to Goth- to the WFL, but it feels like a losing battle. At this point it feels like I should sit and hope the answers just appear out of the blue."

Andy looks up at the framed and signed picture on the wall of Netanyahu. "What would you do now?" He wonders to himself.

Suddenly a beeping sound escapes from the Commissioner’s watch. It’s Alejandro, his trusty sidekick. "Andy do you come in?" He says.

"I’m here, talk to me." Andy responds

"He’s here. At the office. I’ve found him."

"Impossible! There’s no way."

"I wouldn’t lie about this, you’d better get down here quick before he disappears again."

Andy doesn’t even respond before rushing through the dark to an elevator. Turning his key and pressing a button, he arrives at a secret floor that hasn’t been touched in many moons. Without a word, he hops into the Commishmobile and shoots out onto the open road. His thoughts race, but the Commishmobile races even faster towards the old entrance of the WFL Weekly branch of PapaJack Productions. Parking be damned, he pulls up in front and rushes up the stairs, meeting Alejandro inside.

"This has to be it, I saw lights inside the Chief Editor room. It looks like he’s working on something in there" Ale says as the two hurry up the stairs.

Standing in front of the old door to the office, memories come flooding back to both GMs of the hours spent in the Chief Editors office talking shop about the waiver wire, WFL Weekly, and season’s past. With a push they open the door and find… nothing. The lights are on and the computer is blinking, but he’s nowhere to be found. It is only when a voice speaks rings out from the computer’s speakers that they stop frantically searching the room and stop dead in their tracks

"I know why you’re here. Things haven’t gone all too smooth since the election have they? You’ve done what you can to put the WFL back on the right path, and progress is apparent. But the outside voices grow louder and louder each day; your critics crawl out of the woodwork now that the mystique of a new Commissioner has worn off a bit. You need something to jumpstart the 2025-26 WFL Season, and I hold the keys to making that happen. It would be daring, incredibly risky, and some would say foolish to start this again… But when have I ever made safe and smart decisions? You want it, you’ve got it. WFL Weekly… is back."

And with that last proclamation, the door opens once more and a familiar face steps through to greet the shocked Andy & Ale. Before they can speak, he says "There’s just one more thing to say,"

Without further ado… let’s rock n roll

The WFL Draft

With another season, brings yet another highly anticipated WFL Draft. This year’s draft, the first under Commissioner Andy’s watch, may have started slightly late but there was action from the very beginning. While Johnny played the role of excellent host for 5 of his fellow GMs, the broadcast on Discord was lively, with the other half of the league quick to share their opinion with a sound effect from the soundboard if they felt a certain way about a pick. From Bingo to beer, and all the crazy draft picks in between, let’s take a closer look at some of the iconic draft moments this year.

• - In truly iconic fashion, out of all 6 GMs to be at the in-person draft party, the last one to show up was… the commissioner. With the draft board in tow. And the beer. Classic Andy.
• - It didn’t take long for things to go off the rails early, as we saw the earliest draft timeout used in history with Jack using his at pick 1.07. Ale fans were seen pulling their hair out watching a timeout be called that early, and he remained true to form as he banked yet another draft timeout to add to his collection.
• - And it proved to be an important decision, as he got a deal done with Andy to swap 1st, 4th, and 12th rounders. As fate would have it, despite moving down 5 spots to the 1.12 guess who was waiting right there for the taking? The King is back home.
• - One of the new and exciting additions to the Draft this year was WFL Draft Bingo set up by Commissioner Andy and yours truly. In a shocking moment, Parker called Bingo first in the early rounds and won the gift card prize… Or at least he would have if he actually had Bingo. It was around Round 4 at the time of the call and he had "A kicker is taken before the last round" crossed out. There had been no kicker taken.
• - A true absolute classic moment. X player is taken in whatever round, and then a couple rounds later: "I’m picking X player". This is usually met with a chorus of laughs, boos, and impassioned GMs requesting a loss of draft pick or other cruel and unusual punishment. And the culprit was of course Fabi- Wait… it wasn’t Fabian? It was *checks notes* JEREMIAS??? He tried taking Aaron Jones after he’d already been drafted huh? What a truly backwards world we live in now.
• - A true star of the live draft was Johnny. Not having early picks in the first two rounds and not having to drive anywhere after the draft, equaled a healthy amount of alcohol down the hatch. And while he wasn’t drunk, his mind certainly wasn’t as sharp as it usually is. This was especially apparent when he fully picked up the sticker for Noah Fant (TE2 in Cincinnati) and almost read his name out on camera before grabbing the right name: Evan Engram. Muscle memory was working overtime there, as Fant has a habit of sneaking onto Johnny’s teams throughout season’s past. Another iconic moment of Johnny’s actually happened during a pick that wasn’t his. In the 9th Round, Andres of the Bang Bros drafted Colton Loveland. This was followed by what can only described as a shriek of terror from Johnny, who shouted "NOOO!" at the top of his lungs and sounded as though he was shot. A true visionary: Johnny Agudelo.
• - In his first draft without Mesa since 2021, Andres was looking to follow up last season’s breakthrough campaign with a strong draft class. And he certainly drafted an interesting team. The original Bang Bro didn’t take a single player over the age of 29, and rosters an astonishing 6 rookies at this current moment. The average age of his team is 24.14 years old, far and away the youngest in the WFL. It’s a strategy we saw used last season by Andy, whose team finished… last in the league. Hmmm.

Power Rankings

(By Jeremias Di Vico & Alejandro Lopez)

This years power rankings going into Week 1 are divided into five tiers as you’ll see below:

• -OP-

  Andy - Following possibly the most ground-shifting set of trades ever seen with last year's DraftPickGate, Andy easily comes in on a tier of his own. With the best RB core and a top WR room, anything less than a championship* is unacceptable for this team.

• -Very Good-

  Jere - WHL Truther comes in to 2025 riding the predicted success of BTJ, trying to pair him for some extra points with Clemson champion T-Law. The RB room, best TE in fantasy, the better Bengals wideout and we can’t help but predict a strong finish for Jere. Will injures plague him? Will hindsight bias plague him? We don’t know. Rest assured some draft texts will arrive on managers phone’s to better his depth.

  Parker - While starting the draft changing the password to WussiesCentel, downing 2 pint sized Twisted Teas, and declaring BINGO before anyone could muster a few boxes, Parker enters week 1 with a solid team all around. Built around Puka and Bijan, Parker’s draft picks of Scary Terry, James Fabian Cook and Zay Flowers strike fear into opponents who may be calling for help instead. Depth, coming at a high price for any WFL manager, is probably the only gripe we have here.

  Jack - The QB whisperer himself, many will try to replicate, but never succeed. Jack entered Johnny’s apartment with a bonified QB1 at the end of the draft, and Jack took full advantage. Excellent studs, high projections, but 2 QB headass? That’s a head scratcher. Maybe a Jere jab on the waiver? We love the sound of that.

  Fab - Fabian. One of the most storied and famous WFL Managers, enters the year with an extremely solid RB duo on his roster. A question mark lays large on Travis Hunters offensive effectiveness, and could old age affect Tae’s knees? We don’t know. We couldn’t write this review without the 2 TE Headass draft strategy. Speaking to many managers, nobody is interested in taking the aging Travis Kelce, and that could really spell doom for the iconic “why do you want him then” trade talks with this manager. Ggs.

• -Solid-

  Ale - With a decidedly keeperless and Ale-coded draft through and through, it is little surprise to see the outspoken manager in the solid division. His duo of PPR RBs paired with a fortunate Justin Jefferson fall to pick 6 is one of the more underrated cores across the league. However, the puzzling Bo Nix pick and uncertain flex players leave a lot to be desired. Ale will look to use his league-high 6 remaining timeouts to buy his team enough time for another deep playoff run.

  Eric - The Award Winner of WFL’s hardest to find team in 2025 has to go Mr.Eric, manager of ~Jonah’s Xbox Gamertag~. The stack of the Burrow and Chase is arguably the best stack in the league, and Eric’s WR room is straight up elite. Do we love his RB room? Depth outside of that? Not really. We expect some cursed GGs out of this group and big wins needed. As a decorated champion (hold my 2023 chip) we can never count Eric out season-long.

  Jonah - With a heavy heart, we announce the death of his royal highness, Kyle Jonah Pitts. It just didn’t work out this year. The belief in the 2025 Lions stands true here, and in terms of wide depth across the slots in Yahoo, we have to love the names we see. Could we see Garrett benefiting from a new OC, and Slick Rick taking the mantles of SF’s WR1 after Deebo’s departure? Lets see. We can guarantee some name aura though, a sentiment we can’t share with other managers.

  Drew - The team-name savant and former commissioner leaves his post to enter the draft with a great team. A eagles stack, Nico Collins, Devon 22-ppg Achane strike fear into the new week as managers refresh their screens to find out they play him. The concussion expert Olave and question marks around the Browns RB room leave some to be desired, but you can bet Aaron Calf Strain Jones (all on one side btw) will cede touches to Jordan Mason. Who doesn’t love that.

  Andres - In his first draft apart from Mesa, Andres pulled off some signature reaches, going all in on a rookie RB core early. Despite this, the lone Bang Bro has among the most exciting WR rooms in the league with Josh Allen to boot. While Andres could certainly surprise if his slew of rookies pan out, thats a big IF. Will Andres prove Mesa was the issue all this time or will his rookie-fueled hubris spell his end? All eyes are on the recent divorcee this season.

• -Ass-

  Johnny - Johnny was the final victim of the DraftPickGate, but despite this, he came out with a solid team. While he is missing the top-end talent that the top of the league sports, his scrappy band of mid-rounders have the upside to steal some games. While we were impressed with the outcome, the suspended Rashee Rice and an uncertain RB room could be Johnny's downfall. However, one thing is certain: this won't be Johnny's team for long.

• -Dirt-

  Daniel - Severely hamstrung by DraftPickGate last year, Daniel comes in with among the worst drafted rosters to ever grace the WFL. Despite the manager's storied history of hate with the position, Daniel decided on an RB-RB start that will have to fuel his victories this season, as his WRs for lack of a better term, are ass. With draft pick trading out of sight and out of mind, Daniel will need a miracle from the fantasy gods to push for a playoff spot and more this year.

Papa’s Picks:

WFL Game of the Week: Worse than WHL (Jeremias) vs. This is a call for help (Parker)

- The first WFL Game of the Week of the 2025-26 season is a massive one. Two bitter divisional rivals square off in an attempt to start their journey back towards playoff contention. With trash talk already flowing in the league’s inner circles, these two always seem to be clashing right in the middle of things. We’re of course talking about Jeremias vs Parker. An offseason that saw the two engage in debate after debate regarding the future of the league, saw Parker’s dreams of IDP completely snuffed out in both the WFL & W-League, with Jere leading the opposition. The lore runs deep with these two; former roommates and consistent trade partners, giving way to court cases and feeder team allegations. And yet this year they both are playing with something to prove. Parker was one loss away from doing the WFL Punishment, while Jere was not far behind, also competing in the Toilet Bowl. Will Jere’s superstar keepers provide the energy needed to start the season on the right foot? Or will Parker’s two shiny first round picks provide the spark that turns the direction of his franchise around? There’s only one way to find out

Upset Watch of the Week: KRAFT YAC & CHEESE (Drew) vs. Came (Daniel)

- Daniel went all in last season, cashing in his chips (draft picks) in an attempt to capture his first title, and the gamble was a losing one. Despite his lack of draft picks however, this roster has some solid pieces on it. Drew’s roster has some superstars on it for sure between Nico Collins & De'Von Achane, but there is real concern at both Flex spots with Jordan Mason & Dylan Sampson slotted to start for KRAFT YAC & CHEESE. Came’s tandem of Darnell Mooney & Austin Ekeler has a lot higher of a floor, and could be where he makes up a lot of ground. Tyler Warren’s projections are astonishingly low compared to most Tight Ends; do not let numbers fool you here, he should have a good day against the Dolphins defense. The tone of this game will be set Thursday with Daniel’s Dak Prescott & DeVonta Smith squaring off with Drew’s Jalen Hurts & AJ Brown. Do not be surprised if the man they call Peach pulls one out from right under Sleepy Drew.

Predictions: (Last Season’s results: 27-23 before WFL Weekly IV was discontinued)

• KRAFT YAC & CHEESE (Drew) vs. Came (Daniel) ✅
• Hall of Fame YouTuber (Fabian) ✅ vs. Golden Boys (Johnny)
• Marvin’s Room (Jack) ✅ vs. The Bang Bros (Andres & Mesa*)
• Wake & Baker Co. (Jonah) vs. Palmer Luckey’s Fantasy Team (Andy) ✅
• XxBond201xX (Eric) vs. Edna Mode and Guest (Alejandro) ✅
• Worse than WHL (Jeremias) ✅ vs. This is a call for help (Parker)

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The only good luck that we here at WFL Weekly wish you, is good luck with injuries. Everything else is up to the higher powers.

*Note from the Editor*: I appreciate Andy, Ale, and Jere for contributing to this week’s edition of WFL Weekly, and to the publication as a whole. Thanks for all your help getting this together and creating content while I try to make this work.