2011 NFL Fantasy Football Draft Emergency Preparedness Kit

It's August 1st. Have you ever gone this late into the year without knowing exactly who you want on your fantasy football team? This year, thanks to the lockout, and a jacked-up off season, you don't even know who is on your home team.
Every year, in every fantasy football draft, someone distinguishes themselves by picking a tight end in the third round, a kicker before the last round, or a wide receiver who is in jail. This year, with the late start, and corresponding narrow research window, many team owners are going to embarrass themselves. With help, you can avoid being one of them.
Your semi-reliable Fantasy football magazines are now worthless:
Athlon and Pro Football Weekly, etc., produce entertaining, comprehensive football guides. Because of the timing - most hard-copy guides come out in July - there are gaps pertaining to free agency and Brett Favre's status is commonly undetermined. Most of these magazines are well researched, however, and the information is, on the whole, helpful. Not this year.
2011 fantasy magazines are hitting newsstands without the benefit of any off-season, free-agent or preseason activity. Players are moving, players are retiring, players are coming in fat.
No team is going to start the season looking the way it did at the end of the lockout. The Tennessee Titans alone have swapped their starting and backup QB; just lost one starting WR, Randy Moss; may lose another, Kenny Britt, and their #1 offensive player, most owners #1 overall pick, RB Chris Johnson is holding out. Not one magazine in circulation will have all, or even most of that.
If you can wait until the day of your draft to buy your magazine, you stand a chance of getting up to date information. If that's all the time you plan to dedicate to research, however, you may be better off neither investing in a magazine or a fantasy team.
Don't take chances:
Many fantasy leagues are won by a timely acquisition of a Marques Colston or Arian Foster. Even with thorough research, to get a quality unknown takes as much luck as effort. This year player movement is frantic and information will be spotty, and owners are going to flounder to secure a sleeper.
While the guys on either side of you spend early picks on the likes of a Cam Newton and Mark Ingrahm, you can clean up on proven, if not entirely sexy veterans. Draft Joe Flacco and Rashard Mendenhall when you get the chance, then watch the competition fight over Tarvaris Jackson as they scramble to fill neglected needs.
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