Thursday Night Football Fantasy Picks: Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Packers vs 49ers

Week 9's Thursday Night Football matchup pits the San Francisco 49ers against the Green Bay Packers.

This one is tricky for fantasy football purposes because injuries and positive COVID tests have left both teams very thing, with a ton of backups entering consideration as fantasy plays.

Here's some start 'em, sit 'em advice to help you navigate your fantasy picks for Thursday Night Football.

Packers vs 49ers Fantasy Picks

Start Dexter Williams, RB, Green Bay Packers: Jamaal Williams and A.J. Dillon are both out, and Aaron Jones is still very much questionable, suggesting he could be limited if he does play. That leaves Tyler Ervin and Dexter Williams. Ervin is technically ahead of Williams on the RB depth chart, but he has barely been a running back in this offense. We have seen 104 of his 108 snaps in 2020 come with him lined up as a WR. As favorites, the Packers should be taking a reasonably run-heavy approach here, giving Williams some interesting sleeper appeal.

Start Trent Taylor, WR, San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers are incredibly thin at WR this week, and will also be missing their leading receiver at tight end. Trent Taylor steps in as the de facto WR1, and he's the only active 49ers WR who has even caught a single pass this season. With the 49ers sitting as heavy underdogs they'll be forced to throw the ball, and that should mean ample volume for Taylor.

Sit Robert Tonyan, TE, Green Bay Packers: Robert Tonyan's 5 TDs from Week 2 to 4 put him on the radar in fantasy football, but his value has fallen off since. He's topped 4 targets in just one of his last three outings. As mentioned above, the game flow tonight isn't likely to favor high passing volume from the Packers, and with Allen Lazard potentially returning and soaking up more targets, Tonyan isn't likely to see enough looks to be reliable.

Sit anybody you've heard of, San Francisco 49ers: This might be a slight exaggeration, but basically any presumed 49ers starter from before the season is out of play this week. Jimmy Garoppolo? Out. George Kittle? Out. Tevin Coleman? Out. Deebo Samuel? Out. Brandon Aiyuk? Out. Raheem Mostert? Out. The Niners are so thin that there aren't any real "sit" options that aren't obvious.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.