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Top Ten NFL Sites You Should Know by Now
You love the NFL; why else would you be on this site, researching and reaping the benefits of fantasy football? But let’s be honest: there are only so many hours in the day. If you’re a student, that means homework, reading, midterms, and eventually (no!) finals. If you’re in a 9-5, that means hours spent answering emails, doing paperwork, and pleasing the boss with hard (or at least effective) work. And if you’re married and have kids, that means even more time spent away from what really matters: fantasy football.
The point is, however, you probably don’t have as much time to spend researching fantasy football and tweaking your roster as, say, a writer or journalist who has been fortunate enough to land a gig analyzing his favorite pastime.That’s why this post is so important: it highlights the websites that will give you the biggest bang for your time buck. Time management is important no matter what you’re doing; figuring out fantasy football is no different.
Here are the top ten sites - offering everything from tools that allow you to do your own analysis to providing their analyses to breaking down the day’s news - you ought to know. Bookmark them, subscribe to them, keep an eye on them; you’ll be a better fantasy football player for doing so.
1. This site, of course- Sports Data Hub makes it easier than ever to look at how players are performing on a weekly basis and that makes pitting players head-to-head for trades easier because, chances are, you won’t get enough information from any other site. The best part: the basic tool (which is for the players themselves) is free. If you want to dig deeper, don’t hesitate to pay for the modestly priced premium features of the site for even more data. My favorite tool: trendlines.
2. Pro Football Reference - There isn’t a better statistical database on the planet during the offseason. The site has super-fast load times and an easy-to-access layout, which means you’ll get more done in less time. Plus, when you’re bored it’s always fun to check out some of the site’s frivolities, such as which player was born today and the non-quarterback passers, which lists all the “other guys” since 1960 to have thrown a pass in a game.
3. Football Outsiders - Simply put, these guys know football. They’ve developed their own statistics for breaking down which offenses are most effective when they have the football and which defenses are best at stopping those offenses. Their articles are spot-on and their analysis is, well, brilliant. For example, they developed something called the third down prinicple which basically points out that “teams whose third down performance on offense or defense exceeds their performance on first and second down tend to see that third down performance decline in subsequent years.” Check out the site and be prepared to read a lot of numbers (though in an easily digestible format).
4. Fantasy Players Network - You probably don’t have time to check 25 different blogs every day, but that’s okay, because this site has brought together 25 of the best fantasy football blogs on the net and put them on one site. It updates frequently and links to those other sites so you can check the headlines you want (including both news and analysis) without subscribing to dozens of blogs and sites.
5. Pro Sports Daily - I recommend checking this site in the morning when it’s updated with headlines form loads of newspapers from around the country. They also have team-specific pages and the site has developed into a more communal format, with more emphasis on comments. The coolest part: seeing 10-20 headlines, plus snippets (a paragraph or so) that give you a pretty good idea of the article’s content.
6. AccuScore - Now here’s a great concept: weekly forecasts for individual players and teams (such as postseason odds) at the click of the mouse. The articles also do a great job of telling you what the numbers mean,without requiring you to go back to school for a math degree. And if you’re the gambling type, the site offers analytical tools for over/under, a parlay calculator, and the daily line report.
7. Rotoworld - It’s easy during the offseason to wind up unsure of who is starting where and how position battles are coming along. And that’s just one great reason to bookmark this site. The depth chart page is something that once you see it, you wonder how you got along without it. It updates more frequently than any other site I know about and makes it very easy to check up on the latest news and injury reports for specific players.
8. Fantasy Football Librarian - Fantastic links await you on this updated-on-a-pretty-much-every-day-basis blog. It makes sense, doesn’t it? A librarian doing research … only this librarian has an affinity for fantasy football. What could be better?
9. The Official Website of the National Football League - NFL.com is a great place to follow games when you can’t catch them on television and the video recaps give you a pretty good idea of what happened during the game in under five minutes. Also, be sure to check out anything written by Adam Schefter or any video that he’s involved in: he’s the Chris Mortenson of NFL Network and his rumors and analysis are usually dead-on.
10. Pro Football Talk - This site continues to be known for its rumor mill, but the site also features A LOT of news. It’s updated several times each hour with analytical posts that put most other news-rumor-analysis sites to shame. It can be overwhelming at times to see so many posts, but it’s worth reading the homepage’s headlines every so often during the day to catch some juicy NFL gossip.
Tags: Fantasy Football, Fun, Other Sites, Tips, Top 10