iPhone App Reviews

Fantasy Football Draft Kit roundup

Michael (Admin) | Aug 7, 2009 Sports

Hey FF nerds, I missed out on the short window for fantasy football reviews last year but this time around I’m all over it! Every year I’m in at least three fantasy football leagues so I definitely have a vested interest in apps like these.

One thing I wanna say right off the bat is that all of these fantasy football apps fall into the “draft kit” category which implies that they’re intended for use during a fantasy draft so that’s how I’m treating them. They each allow you to mark players so you know if they’ve been drafted by you or someone else, each supports multiple drafts, and each one has a “my team” view.

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Gonna start things off here with the 900-lb. gorilla, ESPN’s Fantasy Football 2009 Draft Kit. I can sum up this app in about three words: fancy but slooowwww. Oh yeah, and it crashes fairly often.

We all know ESPN is basically the sports world’s mothership and anything they put their name on is usually top notch, so I think it’s fair to expect a lot from this app. It’s ad supported but it definitely feels glossy… nice graphics plus stats and news updates for each player make this a good fantasy football research tool for when you’re on the road, but expect to spend some time waiting each time you switch from one part of the app to another.

If you’re actually trying to use the Draft Kit during a draft, you can switch between team positions by swiping left and right. Nice feature, but if you’re looking at “all” players and you suddenly feel the need to look at tight ends in the fourth round when Gates and Witten come off the board, it’s gonna take a few swipes which might cost you more time than you have.

ESPN Fantasy Football Draft Kit comes with ESPN’s rankings for the top 100 players and it’s free so you’ve not nothing to lose by trying it, but again I’ll stress that it’s not something you want to be relying on during a live draft unless screaming the F word at your iPhone is something you look forward to!

iTunes Link – ESPN Fantasy Football 2009 Draft Kit
Version 1.0

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Fantasy Football Cheatsheet ’09 isn’t as feature-packed as ESPN’s app but it’s still pretty decent. Like ESPN it gives stats and news updates (courtesy of Rotoworld.com) for each player and it also assigns icons to players who have a recent news update or are injured/suspended. When you select a player you’ll get a basic profile plus the player’s mug shot, and swiping to the left will reveal recent stats and news which opens via an in-app window. Nice.

The one thing this app doesn’t do well is switch between position views… there’s a separate screen where you can check or uncheck positions to include on the player screen, but once again this is way too slow if you’re doing a live draft.

ADP (average draft position) and AAV (average auction value) figures are provided for each player, and if you think the default rankings are bullshit you can re-rank players yourself. Player search is also included.

Overall 290 Design has put together a competent fantasy football app, but having to go to a separate screen to change position views is a fatal flaw if this app were to be used during a live draft.

iTunes Link – Fantasy Football Cheatsheet ’09
Version 2.2

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Oddly enough, the ugliest app in this bunch is also the one that’s most usable in a live draft setting! And I wouldn’t even say Studs & Duds Fantasy Football Draft Kit ’09 is truly “ugly”, it’s just more plain-jane than the others.

ESPN and 290 Design both made the mistake of making position view changes a little too slow and cumbersome. Why is speed so important? Well duh!! It’s important because, during a live draft, the first 3-4 rounds usually move REALLY fast and the last thing you want is to be scrolling down the rankings to find Knowshon Moreno so you can mark him as “taken” when some jackass reaches for him in round 2.

FSJ Development got smart and made changing positions a 1-tap process with “ALL/QB/RB/WR/TE/PK/D” across the top of the screen. Simple as that!

Something else that’s smart about Studs & Duds is the search tool. ESPN doesn’t have a search, and Fantasy Football Cheatsheet has a typically basic search that’s pretty thorough (lots of 2nd- and 3rd-string players) but it requires you to type in a name. Studs & Duds goes two steps further by listing *most* of the ranked players alphabetically AND they included the same alphabetical slider you find in Contacts and iTunes so you can thumb your way down to the right guy very quickly. This app’s search does have one shortcoming in that it only seems to list the top-ranked players for each position plus team defenses… for example, it lists Donald Brown, Joseph Addai’s backup, but not the wild-eyed “I’ll get this team ready!” ex-Wolverine Mike Hart, the backup to Addai’s backup.

The real kicker in Studs & Duds is the custom scoring feature. You can look at all the player rankings you want, but if your league gives 1/2 point for completions or 500 points per touchdown, custom scoring can make the difference between a player being ranked #1 or #20. I don’t know if this app takes career stats into account or just last season, but either way it’s gotta be an improvement over player rankings based on someone else’s scoring system.

Studs & Duds provides nothing in the way of player news so this isn’t a research tool, but if you insist on using your iPhone during a live draft when it’s usually too late to research this is the app to get. I myself will probably have it open during each of my three drafts this year just for the custom-scored player rankings, but I won’t be using it to track who’s taken and who’s not.

iTunes Link – Studs & Duds Fantasy Football Draft Kit ’09
Version 1.1

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Each of these apps has its own strengths and weaknesses, but as a loser guy who’s been living vicariously through fantasy football for about seven years now I can tell you that the best draft-day cheatsheets are the ones you print out on paper!! Nothing’s faster than drawing a line through a name when somebody gets drafted and, if you’re doing a live draft online, chances are you’ll have that information right there in the draft window anyway.

I seriously doubt ESPN is reading this review, so this next part is for 290 and FSJ:

Make a tool that supplements a draft, not one that tracks it! To some extent player news is a supplement and custom scoring is also an awesome feature, but I’m talking about small bits of info versus reading entire articles and punching in lots of numbers. When I’m on the clock and have less than two minutes to select a player, this is what I want to know:

• What are the most favorable matchups for position (X) during bye week (x)
• Who should I avoid due to recent injury or suspension
• Which running backs are in a platoon situation
• Which players are about to be indicted on felony criminal charges

Ok I’m kind of kidding about that last one, but if Plaxico Burress is accidentally listed in Yahoo’s draft rankings you just know some dumbass is gonna draft him!

Well that’s pretty much it for this year’s FF roundup… Studs & Duds is clearly my favorite for live draft use, and ESPN is the best of the three for general research. FF Cheat Sheet is pretty good, too, but it can’t compete with either of the other apps in their respective areas of accomplishment.

Good luck in your fantasy draft and remember… print your cheatsheet on paper!! I know you wanna track the draft on your iPhone, but there just isn’t an app for that.

Tags: american football, app roundup, fantasy football