WMFFL Season Review, Draft Recap, and Season Predictions (2025 Edition)
The Jews were super this year!
Published: Sep 01, 2025
By Tom Marsh
Change is a constant
Two new owners joined the fold at the last minute this year. I don't know why guys seem to drop out of the league so late, it's not like we don't have 8 months between seasons. Also, I was on vacation all last week and have to rush this posting, so apologies in advance for any mistakes (no time to proofread this year).
2024 Season Recap
In a season with three 10-4 teams, it kind of sucks (for those teams anyway) to fold in the playoffs to an 8-6 upstart but luck always wins out over skill, record, etc. The Andrew's ANJT was the lucky one and he beat the 10-win Lionhearts in round one then surprised everyone by knocking off the team with the highest-scoring offense AND defense last year, the Testudos Revenge. David beat Goliath to win the title and we can now officially say that the Jews rule the world (at least the WMFFL world). Now Andrew just needs to come get this trophy out of my office.
Team-by-Team Reviews and Predictions
In 2023, I blew 5 predictions and nailed 5. Last year was MUCH worse, I blew 6 and nailed 0. I'm definitely getting worse at predictions. Maybe it's the new owners or my lack of ability to estimated how players will perform? I do notice that my poor predictions correspond with my own team's poor performance, so maybe it's the latter
Nailed it - 0 teams
Missed by 1 game - 3 teams
Missed by 2 games - 3 teams
Blew it (missed by 3 or more) - 6 teams
The AI Twist
This year, since I had to miss the draft for the first time, I attempted to train an AI model to simulate our draft. It took awhile to train the model well enough that it could pick properly, prioritize rookies/youth for a dynasty league, exclude the keepers from the draft, not pick kickers or OL in round 1, and generally pick the best player based on our unique scoring system. In the end, I got it to run well enough to be serviceable and I was able to simulate our draft a handful of times with, what I thought was reasonable accuracy.
There were some noticeable struggles and hallucinations I had to overcome though. For starters, since the model would use its own judgement to pick a certain player based on its own external sources, it would often pick a second-year player as a "rookie" so clearly some of the sources it was using were outdated. Second, even though I fed it a list of the keepers (i.e. players that should not be available in the draft pool) it would (quite often) still include them or sometimes just 1 or 2 would pop into each simulation, which was very annoying. I was able to overcome most of these issues though and thought it did pretty well in the end. My ultimate goal for next year is to run the model live during the draft and have it recommend a handful of players for me at each position, based on my position preference by round, by the available players, etc. I am pretty close to this, just need to work out a few pieces by next year.
I am adding a new line to each team's draft recap below to indicate the player that AI would have taken in the first round, had AI drafted for that owner. Then in this article next year, I can note who's pick worked out better in the end. This is your chance to see if you can pick better than AI!
Burgundy Division
Two new owners enter the Burgundy this year. We don't know how they'll perform but there is usually a year or two of learning curve as folks get used to our rules. This may present an opportunity for Byron to return the Norsemen to glory or for Richard to win his third division title in a row and maybe move past the first round of the playoffs.
Norsemen
2024 Predicted Finish: 10-4
2024 Actual Finish: 7-7
2024 Results: For the second year in a row, I picked Byron to bounce back from a .500 season to take the division but yet again, he failed me. Byron has now been in a .500 rut for two seasons, after posting an almost .750 winning percentage over the prior 5 seasons. The other owners in his division should take note however. The last time Byron had back-to-back .500 or worse seasons, he turned it around for that 5-year run of success.
Best Pick: Tyler Warren
Worst Pick: Tyler Loop (putting alot of trust in a rookie kicker)
AI Round 1 Pick: Travis Hunter
Actual Round 1 Pick: Christian McCaffrey
Draft Grade: A+
2025 Predicted Finish: 6-8
Summary: Byron came out with an exceptional draft but, even with a new owner, the TR still features a murderous lineup on offense and the Lionhearts are still strong. Byron improved at QB by drafting Love but at RB he'll try to depend on a declining McCaffrey. He's got lots of youth at WR and will need Amon-Ra St. Brown and Malik Nabers to both have huge years. He has a rookie TE in Tyler Warren and a rookie kicker. On D, Byron has Micah Parsons and Edgerrin Cooper could have a great year. Overall, Byron has some strong players but he's got a total of 9 rookies on his roster, that's putting alot of faith in a youth movement. Too much faith, in my estimation, to win the division.
Richard's Lionhearts
2024 Predicted Finish: 4-10
2024 Actual Finish: 10-4
2024 Results: Wow, Richard really proved me wrong and had a monster year in a tough division. Even though he ranked 6th in overall points, The Lionhearts swept the division rival Testudos Revenge and won his division for the second year in a row.
Best Pick: Joe Burrow
Worst Pick: Devaughn Vele
AI Round 1 Pick: Drake London
Actual Round 1 Pick: Joe Burrow
Draft Grade: B+
2025 Predicted Finish: 8-6
Summary: A great draft from Richard and he's poised for another big year. If Burrow can continue to produce, he'll have a top RB tandem in Achane and Josh Jacobs. At WR, he's got Smith-Njigba who will be strong but he'll need one of the other 6 WRs on his bench to step up. At TE, both of the guys he drafted are a drop off from Kelce. On D, he's got just ok guys at DL and LB but things are stronger on the DB side. It will be tough for Richard to repeat but anything's possible. His QB, RBs, and one WR alone will be enough to keep him in the division title chase.
Sigourney's Beaver
2024 Predicted Finish: 4-10
2024 Actual Finish: 3-11
2024 Results: That makes two straight 3-11 finishes for the SB. Steven took a .500 team and drove it into the ground in his two years as an owner but in comes Joshua to turn things around. Wish him good luck, he'll need it.
Best Pick: Ricky Pearsall
Worst Pick: Aaron Rodgers
AI Round 1 Pick: Omarion Hampton
Actual Round 1 Pick: Omarion Hampton
Draft Grade: B-
2025 Predicted Finish: 4-10
Summary: Good draft overall, especially for a first time owner. Joshua may struggle a bit at the QB position and could (and probably should) have addressed that prior to the 12th round. He'll need Trevor Lawrence to make a big leap this year to move the needle. At RB, it's pretty bleak and Joshua will need Omarion Hampton to come storming out of the gate and he'll need Kaleb Johnson to assert himself in Pittsburgh. At WR, Hunter may be able to produce points if he's on the field for both offense and defense enough but Joshua will need Ricky Pearsall to make noise and Jaydon Reed to produce in a crowded GB receiving room. Kittle and Hockenson make for strong TEs but he can only start one of them. Joshua does have 2 of the best LBs in the league in Zaire Franklin and Fred Warner and his defense overall is pretty strong. Unless the stars align, it will be a tough first year for the Beaver's new owner.
Testudos Revenge
2024 Predicted Finish: 8-6
2024 Actual Finish: 10-4
2024 Results: The TR rolled through the league all year and cruised into the playoffs with 10 wins, only to lose in sorry fashion to the ultra-lucky ANJT. Derek then oddly bailed out as owner at the last minute before the draft, after 8 years of strong ownership and an almost 60% winning percentage over that period. Morgan steps into a great situation with a strong core of players and has a chance to make a substantial amount of noise from day 1.
Best Pick: Nick Cross
Worst Pick: George Karlaftis
AI Round 1 Pick: Alvin Kamara
Actual Round 1 Pick: Joe Mixon
Draft Grade: D-
2025 Predicted Finish: 9-5
Summary: Auto-draft strikes again! 2 players in the first 4 rounds are on the PUP so not surprising that the TR gets a poor draft grade. Thankfully, Morgan went right to work and cut the dead weight to get this roster in shape. Does it really matter though? This team is almost entirely driven by Jayden Daniels, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Ja'Marr Chase. Three of the top offensive players in the league and all three expected to have even bigger years this year. Are there other guys on Morgan's roster? Sure. Do they matter? No way. He just needs to football gods to keep these three healthy and the TR will again compete for the division title. That said, he does have probably the best DB pair in the league, two strong LBs, and a top DL pairing with Myles Garrett and Aiden Hutchinson. The TR is still the strongest team in the league, top-to-bottom, so Morgan just needs to strap in and enjoy the ride into the playoffs.
Gold Division
Another year, another division title for the TMC. The question isn't whether Warren will continue to dominate, it's will anyone from this division step up to challenge him? Both the Warriors and Crusaders seem to always be a couple games out of contention and Josh has instead decided to play for the Toilet Bowl every year. It's an interesting strategy but as the current 2x Toilet Bowl champion, it appears to be working for him. Maybe a Toilet Bowl 3-peat is in the cards?
Amish Electricians
2024 Predicted Finish: 5-9
2024 Actual Finish: 4-10
2024 Results: It almost looked like the AE had life last year, at week 5 they were sitting over .500 at 3-2. Then reality came back and they lost every remaining game, until pulling out a meaningless W in week 14. A second straight shutout against the even worse SB and Josh again gets the #1 pick.
Best Pick: Ashton Jeanty
Worst Pick: Kyler Murray
AI Round 1 Pick: Ashton Jeanty
Actual Round 1 Pick: Ashton Jeanty
Draft Grade: C
2025 Predicted Finish: 5-9
Summary: From a draft standpoint, Josh has the opposite strategy from Byron. He takes the vets and hopes they can revive their careers or continue to achieve at prior levels. Josh took Ashton Jeanty with the #1 pick, to nobody's surprise but let's all recall that Josh has a horrific #1 pick history (Toby Gerhart and Cleveland version of Baker Mayfield are a few recent ones). It's probably too early to call Marvin Harrison Jr. a bust but he's certainly not performing like his Dad at this point. Josh needs a the old guys (Davante Adams, Travis Kelce) to find the fountain of youth, Jonathan Taylor to stay healthy, and Jeanty and Harrison to deliver up to their expectation. If those things all happen, maybe he can challenge Warren but you're better off buying a lottery ticket. On Defense, he's got a few ok DL and LBs but the strength is at DB. Another long year may be in store for Josh but he may not be bad enough for another Toilet Bowl.
Crusaders
2024 Predicted Finish: 9-5
2024 Actual Finish: 7-7
2024 Results: Hall had a fantastic draft last year but got hit by the injury bug to Puka Nacua and his pre-season trade for Patrick Mahomes did not work out, as Mahomes finished 13th in QB scoring. Hall never had much momentum last year and lost some games he definitely should have won (against Josh for example). It was another year around .500 and not enough to unseat Warren.
Best Pick: J.J. McCarthy
Worst Pick: Javonte Williams
AI Round 1 Pick: Kenneth Walker III
Actual Round 1 Pick: Terry McLaurin
Draft Grade: B
2025 Predicted Finish: 7-7
Summary: Another strong draft for Hall but the results continue to be lacking. Scary Terry was a good pick in the first round and between him, DK Metcalf, and Puka, Hall will have a decent set of WRs. at RB it's Bijan Robinson and the rest so if DK can start hot in Pittsburgh, this may be a 3 WR team. DL is solid, Im a fan of his LBs, and he's got at least one strong DB. Hall will need health, luck, and a stumble by Warren to vie for the division title.
Gallic Warriors
2024 Predicted Finish: 5-9
2024 Actual Finish: 7-7
2024 Results: It looked bleak for Chris at week 6 last year, when the Warriors sat at 1-4 but they really turned it around thereafter to go 6-1 from weeks 6 through 12. He stumbled in the last 2 games though, including a bad loss in the final game to Josh. Another year in the .500 range. Chris makes noise but always seems to be game or two behind.
Best Pick: Kyle Williams
Worst Pick: Travis Etienne
AI Round 1 Pick: Christian McCaffrey
Actual Round 1 Pick: TreVeyon Henderson
Draft Grade: C+
2025 Predicted Finish: 8-6
Summary: Will this be the year Chris breaks through? It could be. It all hinges on the health of #1 QB Lamar Jackson. Chris pretty much owns the JAC backfield with both the flatfooted Etienne and rising Bigsby. If Tank can hold off Bhayshul Tuten, this could be a strength. TreVeyon Henderson was a good pick but probably high in the first round, with Rhamondre Stevenson still in the fold. D'Andre Swift is a solid #2 so there is depth here. WR will be a struggle, with only CeeDee Lamb as the torch bearer. His hope is that Adam Thielen can do a bit early in the year while Kyle Williams gets settled. The real #2 WR on this team is Trey McBride, who puts up enough points to cover for one. Chris has the best kicker (Aubrey) and OL (Eagles) in the league and these 2 alone will win him some games. On D, Chris is solid all around and I like his LBs and he's got a strong pair of DBs. Chris will have to keep his fingers crossed but it's all looking up for the Warriors this year.
Trump Molests Collies
2024 Predicted Finish: 7-7
2024 Actual Finish: 10-4
2024 Results: For the second year in a row, I predicted Warren to finish at .500 and he bested me by getting to 10 wins. That's 4 straigh division titles and the era of the TMC continues. Warren continued to ride Josh Allen and Saquon Barkley to success and there is no reason to think he won't do the same this year.
Best Pick: Deebo Samuel
Worst Pick: Jaylen Warren
AI Round 1 Pick: Rashee Rice
Actual Round 1 Pick: Kenneth Walker III
Draft Grade: A
2025 Predicted Finish: 9-5
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