Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 8: 49ers vs. Jaguars

We take a look at who you should start and who you should sit when the San Francisco 49ers take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 8.

by James Brady

Oct 27, 2013, 10:30 AM UTC

Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars will face off at Wembley Stadium in London for their Week 8 game. San Francisco is 5-2 and coming off a couple big wins, while the Jaguars are 0-7 with no relief in sight. The 49ers are favored by a whopping 16 points as the "road" team. Then again, the 49ers have fallen victim to trap games in the past.

Either way, we’ve got some start/sit advice for you, though all of it should be pretty straight-forward. Let’s start with the 49ers:

49ers

Start: Colin Kaepernick, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis

This is pretty straightforward. The Jaguars have a terrible defense, including the No. 32 rush defense in the NFL at 153.3 yards allowed on the ground per game. That’s abysmal, meaning Gore could have a huge day for San Francisco. Gore leads the No. 3 rushing attack in the league, so it could get ugly.

Colin Kaepernick hasn’t yet broken out with a seriously huge fantasy day, but this could be the one. Jacksonville has a decent pass defense, but teams run on them a lot so the stats could be skewed slightly. Kaepernick himself could be looking to run an awful lot against Jacksonville, making him a good start. Davis has put up yardage totals of 88, 180 and 62 over his last three games and remains a must-start.

Deep Start/Sit: Anquan Boldin

Boldin is an excellent receiver, but against top-tier corners, he's struggled this season. Of course, he can abuse the Green Bay Packers' secondary, but this is one of the very few area the Jaguars are decent. If you have other solid receivers go with them, otherwise Boldin is still a deep start.

Jaguars

Start: Justin Blackmon

Blackmon slowed down against the San Diego Chargers in Week 7, but that's mostly due to the fact that he put up 136 and 190 yards in the previous two games. He's been on fire since returning from suspension, and he's simply not a guy that you sit unless you have some clearly better options. He's a WR2 this week, even against the 49ers.

Deep Start: Cecil Shorts

Shorts is returning from an injury and should resume being a top target in Jacksonville. The 49ers may concentrate all of their efforts on Blackmon, leaving Shorts open to do some damage. It stands to reason that one of these two guys will have a solid day (whichever guy is being covered by Carlos Rogers), and Shorts is a solid WR3 option at this point.

Sit: Chad Henne, Maurice Jones-Drew

If you’re at a point where you’re actually considering starting Chad Henne at quarterback, then you have some issues. That said, he could put up some decent yardage this game. It’s just likely that he’ll erase all of that with interceptions. Jones-Drew has been a shell of his former self this season, and the Jaguars will likely be playing from behind and not trying to run the ball by the second half, as has been the case in just about every game this season.