The NFL season is about to kick off, and you're still not in any fantasy football leagues yet. Time's running out, but you've still got a couple weeks to get in on the action before week 1, and we've got you covered with the best fantasy football apps for 2022.
Whether you're looking for something casual, something you can invest 30 hours a week into, or something in between, you've got you covered. Check it out.
Beginner friendly – Yahoo Fantasy
You probably don't even think about Yahoo much these days, and we wouldn't blame you, but if you're looking for an easy way to dive into fantasy football, it's actually one of the better options available.
Believe it or not, I cut my teeth on Yahoo fantasy years back, and it's still sticking around as one of the most beginner-friendly, easy to use options to this day. The UI is simple and clean, the alerts work well, drafting and rules are quick and easy, and it's totally free. Sure, it's lacking some of the more complex options (and is almost totally useless for dynasty leagues) but if you're a casual player, it's a great choice.
If you're looking for things to go a little deeper, Yahoo does offer some expert rankings integrated into its interface, as well as some daily fantasy challenges, multiple sports for other seasons (NBA and soccer) and a couple things to really round it out, especially for a free service.
Feature rich – Sleeper
Maybe you've been playing for a few years in some other leagues, but you and your buddies are looking to step up into something with a few more features and options. Sleeper has quickly risen as one of the most popular NFL fantasy leagues around thanks to a huge slate of options, tweaks, and customization.
It's incredibly easy to set up, and commissions have much more control over their Sleeper league as opposed to Yahoo or ESPN. You can actually have a functional dynasty league here, and there's much more granular control over adjusting scoring systems, rosters, and more. The interface is also a little more fun with mascots and animations everywhere, although this can seem a little busy at times.
The social aspect of Sleeper is a huge selling point, though, with tons of timely alerts about player status and developments, message boards, and notifications. It handles multiple leagues seamlessly and will even let you track players across leagues in case you're trying to scout out a rookie that you know is going to pop off next week.
Sleeper is also free, but you can set buy-ins if you're doing a winner's pot in your league. Once you get past the beginner stage of fantasy football this one's probably going to be your best bet as you start to take things more seriously, especially if you play with the same group of people every year.
Commission control – My Fantasy League
Let's say you're seriously invested in your fantasy league, and you want to take things up to the highest level. Sleeper and ESPN just aren't cutting it anymore, but you don't want to have to manually keep up with a bunch of spreadsheets and notes every offseason just to keep your league rolling. Meet My Fantasy League.
We'll get the drawbacks out of the way first. MFL is incredibly complicated, looks like a website build in 1997, and doesn't have an official app anywhere. It's clunky, someone in your league is going to complain about how bad it looks, and they're not going to be wrong. But if you want absolute control over every facet in your league? It's the best around and nobody's even close.
MFL really shines in complex dynasty leagues. You want to set the weirdest scoring rules for every single scenario that happens on offense or defense? Go for it. Rookie drafts with draft pick trading and 24 hour rounds? You got it. Salaries, contracts, free agency periods, and taxi squads? It's all here. It's not pretty, but it's ridiculously functional.
This one's not free, either, with prices starting at $69 per standard league if you buy in early in the season. MFL isn't for beginners, and I'd think even some intermediate players will be turned off, but if you specifically need the power and flexibility it offers, you're not going to find it anywhere else. I've been using it in a dynasty league for a few years now, so I can fully vouch for it, pain points and all.
Get an advantage – FantasyPros
FantasyPros isn't an app that lets you play fantasy football directly, but it's designed to supplement your other leagues and help you get a leg up on everyone else in your league. The service links into your other leagues to give you insights into your roster, how well you drafted, good waiver pickups, and more.
There are a couple tiers to pick from and a few apps that they offer, with the free stuff giving your simple advice, news, alerts, and some basic tips to make it through your season for a single league. The paid tiers can get really in-depth, allowing you to sync multiple leagues, set some of those leagues on auto-pilot, analyze trades, compare waiver pickups vs your current roster, manage your dynasty salary cap, and more. There's even a Chrome extension to help you set lineups and quickly see the value of players at a glance.
If you're just playing around in a work league the free tier will help you out without spending a dime, but if you're managing multiple leagues (especially keeper and dynasty leagues) some of those paid tiers can give you some very valuable insight and keep you from making a dumb trade that derails your season.
