It’s NFL draft day!  Here are some resources for tracking the draft as it happens:

• ESPN: Obviously ESPN is the main place for all things NFL draft.  They’ve got lots of video and analysis.
• Yahoo: Yahoo also is hosting a lot of video content and analysis.
• Twitter search for #draft: It looks like people are going to be twittering with the tag #draft while they watch the draft.  Even if you’re not on twitter, you can follow the link above to watch people’s live responses.  It’s a pretty cool way to track opinions in real time.  #nfldraft is probably also a good search term to follow.
• Fantasy Football Fools: The guys at Fantasy Football Fools will be live blogging the draft and will offer their own analysis in real time.

If you know of other live NFL draft resources, leave a comment below.  It’s gonna be a fun day.

The new rookies have been in the mock draft rankings for a few days now.  Unsurprisingly, the top two rookies so far are Knowshon Moreno and Michael Crabtree.  Both of them have an ADP in the mid-9th round for 12-team drafts.

At the moment, they’re being valued the same as Rashard Mendenhall and Derrick Mason.  There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding these players since they may not end up in fantasy-worthy positions after the draft.

Moreno is projected to be drafted in the mid to late 1st round according to FFToolbox.  Several of their experts have Philadelphia drafting him, which wouldn’t be a good spot fantasywise.

Crabtree has had a lot of buzz around him going to Cleveland to fill a potential void from an anticipated Braylon Edwards trade.  TheEndZoneView has a good rundown on the Browns’ situation. That could be a nice spot for a rookie wide receiver to start in.

Overall, there will likely be a few standout fantasy rookies this year just like Matt Forte, Matt Ryan, and Chris Johnson last year.  Situation plays a huge role though, so we’ll have to wait until after the draft to really speculate.

With the NFL draft so close it’s time to officially kick off the 2009 season here at Fantasy Football Calculator.  Here are some site improvements to get you started.

Rookies Added

The long awaited rookies have been added.  Right now there are 28 rookies listed as free agents.  The rest will be added after the draft next weekend.

Easier to Draft

You can now keep track of the draft even with the window minimized.  As the draft progresses, the title bar displays the last draft pick:

The title bar also changes when it’s your turn and counts down your remaining time to draft:

Hopefully this will result in fewer missed picks.  It’s especially useful when you’re at work or doing other browsing online.

Free Memberships

Starting this season there is now also a free Basic Membership option.  This lets you have all of your mock drafts automatically saved for you along with a projected fantasy score for your lineup.

Sign up here to get started.  The premium membership still offers all of the features from last year: Saved mock drafts, Draft Calculator, Draft Simulator, Lineup Calculator, User Dashboard, and Custom Projections. Everything is updated for 2009 and ready to go.

See you in the mocks.

The mock drafts will be unavailable this Saturday morning while there are upgrades to the website and the (overdue) transition to the 2009 season.  It will last from 7AM – 2PM EST.  With luck it will be completed even quicker than that.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

[Update: The upgrade went as planned and the drafts went back online at 2:09 EST.  The Lineup Calculator is currently being upgraded now and will be fully functional in the next couple days.]