Five fantasy football tools to use in 2008

Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, hit the gym more often or stop biting your fingernails. Maybe you want to save more money this year, implement a household conservation plan or study harder.

Or maybe you decided that it is time to win more often in all of your fantasy football leagues. Hey, to each his own.

If the latter is the case and you want to add it to your self-improvement list for this year and beyond, there are five essential tools across the internets that all fantasy footballers should employ. Hit the jump to learn more about these tools.

1. Google Reader: Really, any feed reader will do the trick. I prefer to use Google Reader because I am a Google junkie, but you might like another reader. Whatever, it is all good as long as you use it right. The greatness of a reader is that it brings all the updated content to you — no more refreshing your favorite fantasy football blog to see the latest news and notes. Most blogs and websites have RSS feeds available on their homepages these days (my RSS feed is under the title and you also can add my feed via the links to the left in the “Subscribe …” widget), so it is easy to find and add the feeds to your reader. Fantasy Football Goat has some nice tutorials for getting started with Google Reader and a couple other useful Google products.
2. FFToday.com’s Fantasy Strength of Schedule: This is a must-use during the season. Using mathematic formulas and other arithmetic of which I am unfamiliar, the fantasy strength of schedule shows fantasy owners the optimal plays for each week at every position. The percentages are based on the statistical average of points allowed by a defense during the most recent five weeks, which is highly useful when trying to choose a starter between two or more comparable players. It also helps owners decide who to target via trade by examining upcoming regular season and fantasy playoff matchups.
3. Fantasy Football Cafe: The Cafe is a one-stop source for everything fantasy football and more. I consider this a tool because of the wealth of knowledge you can access via the Cafe’s forums. The Injuries & Player Updates forum is lively during the season with updates and commentary from all over the web about any injured NFL player. Fantasy owners also can get draft, trade, start/sit and other advice from the numerous categorized forums available at the Cafe. This is a community with fans of every NFL team, so the inside scoop never is too far away.
4. Fantasy Football Calculator: When the time comes this summer to start preparing for you fantasy draft(s), the Fantasy Football Calculator is a great tool. The calculator offers continually updated mock drafts and average draft positions (ADP) for all drafted players. Knowing ADP on draft day is crucial for determining when to pick a player, especially if you happen to know the draft tendencies of your opponents. You can even help the calculator obtain this information by participating in a few mock drafts.
5. Fantasy Start or Sit: Every fantasy owner at some point during the season needs Start/Sit advice, even the so-called experts. It always is in an owner’s best interest to consult several sources of information before making a decision. Fantasy Start or Sit is a great place to start for every owner’s lineup needs. This is another community-style site, so it is good to stick around and give some advice of your own to help other’s out as well.