The new football season is upon us, which means one thing. It's time to start your fantasy football league and draft a killer lineup.
Fantasy Football is huge. Depending on how into the sport you are, things can get really competitive. You'll need all the help you can get, whether it's expert advice or mock drafts for practice.
In this article, we aren't looking at the daily fantasy leagues like Draft Kings and Fan Duels. Instead, it's all about the traditional league.
NFL Fantasy Football (Web, Android, iOS): The Best Place to Start Your League
Plenty of sites let you create a league. ESPN and Yahoo are two of the most popular, but I'd recommend going with the official NFL Fantasy Football league. Unlike the other two, this is just about football, no other sports. It's one of the must-have apps for every football season.
The app has live and mock drafts, and lets you create a league with your friends or join a NFL-organized open league. Since it's operated by the NFL, you'll get benefits like in-app videos of players as they score.
The NFL app also suggests the best statistical team each week. Of course, there are lots of news and expert analyses too. But there are better options for those two factors.
Download: NFL Fantasy Football for Android (Free) | iOS (Free)
Rotoworld (Web, Android, iOS): Fantasy News and Highlights
To just find the score, you have Twitter bots like Know The Score. Sites like ESPN and SB Nation track the news happening that can impact the world of sports. Sites like Rotoworld track the news that can impact fantasy leagues, not necessarily the sport itself.
Given that it's all about fantasy leagues, Rotoworld's resources are much deeper. There's a whole section for NFL Draft Headlines, rankings for players on every position, a strategy guide, and a paid "ultimate" guide.
If you need to know something about college football before you draft your NFL lineup, this is one of the best places to go to.
Download: Rotoworld for Android (Free) | iOS [Broken URL Removed] (Free)
FantasyPros (Web): The Finest Cheat Sheets and Tools
Not everyone has the time to research players or keep up with the news. NFL Scoopszone is a useful Chrome extension for sports fans, but sometimes, you need to rely on experts to do the heavy lifting for you. FantasyPros is great if you need a cheat sheet to get you out of a spot of trouble.
It's the easy app to use if you're new to fantasy football. You'll get simple tools like "Who should I start?", waiver or start/sit assistant, trade analyzer, and so on.
FantasyPros also provides a regularly updated cheat sheet. You need a cheat sheet for the draft? No problem. You need to know what to do during your bye week? It's taken care of. It's the best site for beginners and those who don't have enough time to match your fantasy-obsessed friends.
FootballGuys Draft Dominator 2016 (Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux): The Best Paid App
Serious fantasy football players are willing to put down a few bucks to get quality. And there is no app on the market that can match the FootballGuys Draft Dominator.
Expert after expert recommends this detailed, in-depth app that has everything you need to play the game. Draft Dominator works for all types of leagues (PPR, Offensive, Auction, etc.) and is the most thoroughly researched database you'll find. More importantly, if you learn how to use it right, you'll get a lot better at fantasy football.
For instance, this basic demo above will show you how to use it to do the things you'd normally do in your league. It's nice to find complementary players for your injured or underperforming guys. But the advanced features demo opens up a world of new possibilities.
Download: FootballGuys Draft Dominator 2016 for Android ($4.99) | iOS ($4.99) | Windows (Free) | Mac OS (Free) | Linux (Free)
Matthew Berry (Web): The Fantasy Football Genius
If you play fantasy football, you have to know who Matthew Berry is. Berry started as the voice behind Talented Mr. Roto, a much-loved fantasy football site that was eventually bought by ESPN. Today, Berry is perhaps the greatest authority on fantasy football, although Bill Simmons might disagree.
Berry lives and breathes fantasy football and knows more about it than anyone else. More importantly, he draws on his former life as a comedy screenwriter in Hollywood to make everything more entertaining.
Follow Berry on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, where he goes by the moniker "MatthewBerryTMR". Twitter is changing how you watch sports, and that's the best place to follow Berry.
Read Berry's columns at ESPN Fantasy Football if you like text, or listen to him on the Fantasy Focus podcast. It's one of the best podcasts for men. Most importantly, do whatever he says!
Your Say: Daily vs. Leagues
The last few years have seen a major trend of daily fantasy leagues like Draft Kings taking on the classic league format. Their controversies about gambling aside, what's your take on daily leagues?
Which of the two do you prefer? And which of the many apps do you play your fantasy football on?