It seems ridiculous to recommend starting Rivers when he was generally the fifth quarterback taken, a high second/low third round pick, and someone who went for around $30 in auctions.  But a lot of rankers have Rivers right around the cutoff point of tenth for those in standard ten-team leagues.  It’s entirely possible that you have Rivers and added Tim Tebow a few weeks back.  Or you might have Joe Flacco or Tim Hasselbeck backing up Rivers, both of whom have favorable matchups this week.

Tebow would be the most tempting to start over Rivers, but he has a tough matchup this week (Detroit), and despite ending up with 20+ fantasy points last week, he accumulated single digit fantasy points in the first 55 minutes of that game.  Flacco and Hasselbeck are less tempting simply because of seemingly limited upside.

Don’t give up on the “elite” quarterback you drafted just yet.  He’s been a bit unlucky as his interception rate is a little high at 4.1%, and his upside each week is still huge.  We’re not yet at the point where Rivers isn’t an automatic start.

Please welcome Mr. Schaub to the “QB Sit” section of this article for the third straight week.  In week 6 he proved he belonged in this space, and in week 7 he turned in a top ten fantasy QB performance.  Week 8 has the potential to be more like week 6 for Schaub as he faces a surprisingly tough Jacksonville defense.  He’ll also be without Andre Johnson again this week, and he’ll have to compete for yardage with a healthy backfield duo of Arian Foster and Ben Tate.

It seems like ages ago, but Thomas has a 1,000+ total yard season with eight touchdowns under his belt.  More recently he has had success as he racked up over 100 total yards last week.  However, competition in the New Orleans backfield has kept Thomas’ fantasy value in check.  But with Mark Ingram out this week, Thomas should see his fair share of touches.

Darren Sproles is likely to be the New Orleans back that touches the ball the most, but with a matchup that couldn’t be sweeter for running backs in the St. Louis Rams, both backs will have the opportunity to rack up fantasy points.  Last week, DeMarco Murray torched St. Louis for 31 fantasy points, and backup Phillip Tanner got nine.  The distribution should be a little more even between Sproles and Thomas, so each could easily have double digit fantasy points this week.

It looks like Peyton Hillis will be out again this week, so Hardesty is in line to get his second straight start.  The reasoning behind sitting Hardesty is pretty simple.  San Francisco has allowed the fewest fantasy points on average to opposing RB’s by a fairly large margin.  Moreover, Hardesty couldn’t get to 100 yards last week with 33 carries.  This one’s a no-brainer, right?

After Mike Wallace, the exact order of Pittsburgh’s receivers on the depth chart has seemed a bit hazy.  Hines Ward, Brown, and Emmanuel Sanders could be confused for a WR2 by committee.  However, the young guys, Brown and Sanders, led both Wallace and Ward in targets last week. 

Tennessee’s defense has been more than a little shaky lately, but, then again, so has Garcon.  He had only three catches in a game where Indy was playing from behind from the outset.  And despite Tennessee’s less-than-stellar showings the last two weeks, they still rank in the top five for fewest fantasy points allowed to opposing receivers.  The Titans seem to be much more vulnerable to the run and tight ends through the air.  It’s hard to recommend starting any Colt these days, but maybe Delone Carter and Dallas Clark are the best fantasy options coming from the Colts against Tennessee.

Unfortunately, the Bears are on bye this week, so I can’t automatically put their opposing tight end in to this slot for once.

In Christian Ponder’s first start he targeted Shiancoe eight times and Visanthe got in the end zone.  Minnesota’s week 8 opponent is a Carolina team that has been below average against the tight end.  There’s a decent chance the Ponder-Shiancoe connection could thrive again in that matchup.

You’d think people would be off the Olsen bandwagon after two uninspiring performances in a row, but a lot of rankers still have him as a top ten option this week.  It’s more a product of there being a stark lack of alternatives at the position than anything else, but you’d still think people would be willing to admit that Olsen sucks when Olsen has sucked right before their eyes for two consecutive weeks.