San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin said he expects the Seattle Seahawks to go all-out to stop the 49ers' passing game Sunday. That effort will likely include All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman being matched against Boldin for the majority of the game.
Anquan Boldin expects Seattle to try to shut him down; adjust fantasy rosters accordingly
After a career week, Boldin thinks the Seahawks will go all-out to try to limit his pass yards. We break down the fantasy implications.
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Boldin, who caught 13 passes on 17 targets for 208 yards and a touchdown Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, said he thinks the Seahawks will learn from the Packers' mistakes, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com.
“Nobody wants to make the same mistake that the previous team made,” Boldin said. “Things that teams do well the following week, opponents will try to take that out.”
The team's running back, Frank Gore, agreed, saying that he thought Seattle would try to stop the passing game and leave running lanes open for him and quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Fantasy impact: The 49ers certainly have a lot of weapons, and it would make sense that a team would have to focus on one method over another. Boldin and Gore are correct that the Packers dared Kaepernick to beat them through the air Sunday, and Kaepernick met the challenge. So it makes sense that the Seahawks will adjust accordingly.
That said, the Seahawks’ defense is significantly better than Green Bay’s, and the unit likely can diversify its attention and challenge the 49ers on both alleys.
The big thing to take away from this is that it seems likely that Sherman, the Seahawks' best defender, will man up on Boldin. He might not be able to shut Boldin down, but another 208 yards seems unlikely. Kyle Williams and Quinton Patton could get secondary looks from Kaepernick, but still ... Seattle's defense is good. Boldin's value for Week 2 should be about what we thought it was entering the season, not the No. 1 stud he was last week.
