If you've been away from fantasy football, you've missed a lot. The draft, disciplinary suspensions, free agency, drug suspensions, coaching changes, self-imposed suspensions: Plenty has happened that affects the upcoming season.
Okay, that last one isn't real. But it's not totally fabricated, either. What's a holdout (or threat of one) if not a self-imposed suspension?
Truth is, the fantasy landscape has changed since January. Is New Orleans still an elite passing team? Is Dallas still an elite running team? Who's the top receiver, anyway?
To create a viable strategy for the upcoming season, you're going to have to sort through all the roster updates, coaching changes, scheme adjustments and depth chart movements. If you've been paying attention over the past several months, you have a good start but probably didn't catch everything. And if you haven't been following things, well, you're way behind. You have to update yourself on all the changes that have occurred in the NFL since last season ended.
I figure it will take about an hour. Maybe less.
With all the different sources of information at your fingertips, catching up after a long off-season has never been easier. Processing it is a different story, of course. But the days of gaining an advantage by following the league in real time are long gone. If you like following the draft, free agency and voluntary camps, great. There's been plenty of information for you to digest. It just won't help your fantasy teams.
So let's say you were following the NHL playoffs instead (I live in Tampa, so it was a fun off-season. A grudging but well-earned congratulations to Chicago). Maybe you were following women's soccer. I know, plenty of folks hate soccer and don't like women's sports. All I can say is, you missed out.
Or maybe you were spending time with those strange non-fantasy owners who live with you. You might be married to one, and you might feed and clothe the smaller ones. Spending time with them is a good idea every once in a while. So perhaps football wasn't on your mind over the past few months.
That's okay. Sixty minutes on the Internet and you're caught up. Unless you get lost watching videos of toddlers playing the drums or a baby monkey riding a pig or something. Then it could take weeks.
By the way, that's exactly why I use the magazine as a supplement. Some might ask, can a magazine really help you in 2015? Actually, yes. And I'm not saying to use one because I write for a company that produces one. The fact is, it's the other way around: I write for Fantasy Football Index because I've been using the magazine since I started playing more than 20 years ago.
Of course, I started playing way back the early 90s. Why now? Well, have you ever gone on Youtube to look up something specific, and an hour later you're watching breakdancing videos featuring your favorite Star Wars characters? That's the kind of thing that happens to me when I'm looking for relevant fantasy info.
For example, I'll look for a specific injury update, and go to a local newspaper's website. Then there's a link to that reporter's Twitter account, which is also followed by a fan message board. Soon I'm on that board reading a juicy three-page flame war between a couple of strangers in a city two time zones away. And hours later, I have no idea what I was looking for when I started.
We have so many sources of information, it almost makes it harder to avoid distractions. Unless you're a hyper-focused person, it's easy to get lost on the Internet and waste the time you were planning to spend doing research. For me, the magazine is a reliable anchor. I do my own research and gather up-to-date information, of course. But it's tangible, it's a solid starting point and I don't stray too far on the web when it's nearby. Without it, I'm watching people fight on the subway and end up listening to Led Zeppelin album outtakes. I'm reading about deleted celebrity Instagram photos. I'm taking a quiz to find out what Marvel villain I am (for the record, it's Dr. Doom, thank you very much). And I can't afford to do that. I keep the magazine close and it keeps me focused when I have (fantasy football) work to do.
So really, an hour is all it should take to figure out who signed with what teams, who got drafted where, who's gotten hurt already, who signed fat contracts, who got released and who's suspended. That's the good news.
The bad news is, that information is basically useless to you in July.
You won't be drafting for a while (hopefully), and whatever you know now is bound to change (definitely). So the owner who's followed every move since the parade in New England only had an hour's lead on you. But the owner who spends a couple more weeks playing Witcher 3 for Playstation 4 will catch up to you in that same hour.
That's just an example, of course. I'm not seriously telling an adult to spend countless hours on Witcher 3. Not when you could be playing Batman: Arkham Knight. Come on, people.
For now, take solace in the fact that you're not behind and you're not at a disadvantage. Jump in, get yourself acclimated to the new landscape and take stock of your players if you have any on your roster. This is the moment you catch up to everyone in your league. It's your finest hour of the summer. Besides, there's still plenty to do to make the most out of your fantasy season. More on that next week.
My favorite toddler playing drums video.
A baby monkey riding a pig. Follow Michael Murillo on Twitter: