During the NFL off-season, the one thing that gets (fantasy) football fans to awaken from their slumbers is the NFL Draft. The NFL Draft means that last season is officially over, every team is now undefeated, and with the parity in the NFL, one good draft can turn a team into an instant contender. Not only do fans get really excited about the NFL Mock Draft, they spend countless hours mock drafting and even entering a few fantasy mock draft contests of their own. Here is a round-up of a few sites that you may want to check out over the next month as you wonder who your beloved Chargers plan to draft to replace LT:

• NFL Draft – Well, it is the NFL’s show, so expect a lot of coverage on the NFL’s page. If its push for its own content during fantasy football season is any indication, expect the NFL to really kick up its mock draft coverage. It is not announced yet, but do not surprised to see an NFL Mock Draft contest on its site as well.
• NFL Draft Day Insider* – from the same guys who bring you College Fantasy Football Insider, they take their college football knowledge and provide an in-depth look as to how well (or poorly, as the case may be) those players will translate into professionals and when they will be drafted.
• ESPN’s NFL Draft – Considering between now and the draft, ESPN will have about 8,000 hours of draft coverage, this probably a good site to check out. More importantly, do you tend agree with Mel Kiper Jr, or Todd McShay?
• Draft Countdown – Scott Wright offers detailed breakdowns on each player for the first three rounds, and he constantly updates his mock draft with the latest rumors and truths.
• The Football Expert – While this site covers everything football, it is the site’s NFL Draft coverage that gets it most of its attention. Site founder Michael Abromowitz continuously ranks among the most accurate NFL Mock Drafters (last year he finished #2, not too shabby!)

Any of those sites will help you get lost in a see of NFL Mock Draft goodness.

*Note: We are currently developing a new site jointly with Insider Sports Media, the owner of NFL Draft Day Insider

Your fantasy season has been over since Michael Turner‘s sprained ankle ruined your season. You could not even persuade your friends to form a free playoff league at MyFantasyLeague. Well, there is still the NFL’s free fantasy football Playoff Challenge 2009. It’s a free game and offers some big prizes.

To play, all you have to do is select eight players for each round of the playoffs. Players accumulate fantasy points like any other fantasy football league. The team with the most points win. Win what you ask? An all-expense paid trip for two to Super Bowl XLV in 2011. Not too shabby. But, if you fall short of the top prize, you will have settle for one of ten NFL.com gift cards (5-$100 and 5-$50 for first and second place). Hey, it’s a free game, so something is always better than nothing.

By the way, if the playoffs are being played entirely in in 2009, why is this the 2009 Playoff Challenge? Just seems a bit backward thinking and a bit of poor marketing by the NFL.

Monster is the main sponsor for the game. The game is built by Sports Technologies, the guys who started FanNation a few years ago, which was subsequently purchased by Sports Illustrated a few years ago.

Yep, that’s right. What I momentarily thought was a lack of proofreading by NFL.com (screenshot below) was actually a personal realization that for the last three weeks of the season, there are Saturday night football games! For those of you keeping score at home, this means you now have to check your fantasy football lineup on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights.

For the micro-managing fantasy owner, this is both a blessing and a curse. You now get to judicially decide which players to start, watch the injury reports, and adjust your lineup knowing results from some of your players already. The downside is that you have to make decisions about your fantasy team four days throughout the weekend.

Why am I talking about this? It is playoff time for fantasy football, and just like real sports, how you play the game is different for the post-season than it is for the regular season. What was once a simple task to check fantasy lineups on Sunday morning is now a nearly daily ritual.

Sometimes it is amazing how much fantasy sports can resemble real sports without even trying.

Bleacher Report, which bills itself as the “Open Source Sports Network,” deleted an article “CBSSports.com Burns Bleacher Report Applicants for NFL Correspondents.” I was able to find the article on the author’s blog, “CBSSports.com Burns Bleacher Report Colts Writers.” The article mainly blasts CBSSports.com for changing the rules on a promotion it recently ran to find NFL beat writers. Since CBSSports.com syndicates Bleacher Report content, it looks the article was pulled by Bleacher Report (screenshot below) to not anger its customer.

The article cites an email from Bleacher Report CEO Dan Kelley detailing the selections that CBSSports.com made and indicated that only 16 Bleacher Report writers were selected for positions instead of the originally promised 32.

I checked the Bleacher Report Community Guidelines, and in my opinion, this article did not seem to violate any of those terms. I have requested comment from Bleacher Report as to the specific as to why the article was deleted, and I will update this article appropriately.

If Bleacher Report want to be the “Open” sports site, censoring its writers is probably not the best tactic.