Should I start AJ Barner or Jake Ferguson in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on AJ Barner, and the board ranks him 122nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jake Ferguson, and the board ranks him 199th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

AJ Barner's market-based projection is 7.1 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 6 market sources. That is the 82nd highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Jake Ferguson is 2.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a tight end's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Jake Ferguson's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, AJ Barner has been on the field for 88 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 14 percent of the targets and had 12 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 5 of the offence's 70 third down targets, had 3 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 34 targets have averaged 2.1 air yards.

In Week 6 against DEN he caught 3 of 4 targets for 16 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against KC he carried 3 times for 4 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 42 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against CHI he caught 2 of 5 targets for 23 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Jake Ferguson has been on the field for 58 percent of DAL snaps, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 69 third down targets, had 1 of its 31 chances inside the five and seen 6 of its 50 two minute targets.

His 25 targets have averaged 5.0 air yards.

In Week 6 against GB he caught 2 of 3 targets for 13 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against PHI he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against ARI he was not given the ball.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 AJ Barner played 17 games and scored 147.3 PPR points, 8.7 a game, finishing TE14.

He caught 52 of 68 targets for 519 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 12 red zone targets.

That came to 4.0 targets a game, a 76 percent catch rate and 10.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Jake Ferguson played 17 games and scored 188.1 PPR points, 11.1 a game, finishing TE5.

He caught 82 of 102 targets for 600 yards and 8 touchdowns, with 23 red zone targets.

That came to 6.0 targets a game, a 80 percent catch rate and 7.3 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 67 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Head to head

In 2025 Jake Ferguson scored 11.1 PPR points a game and AJ Barner 8.7, 2.4 a game between them.

AJ Barner finished TE14 that year and Jake Ferguson TE5.

Jake Ferguson had 34 more targets than AJ Barner, 102 to 68.

Jake Ferguson had 81 more receiving yards than AJ Barner, 600 to 519.

This season AJ Barner holds the bigger snap share, 88 percent against 58 percent.

This season AJ Barner holds the bigger target share, 14 percent against 9 percent.

Byes and availability

AJ Barner is off in Week 11 and Jake Ferguson in Week 14, so either can cover the other's bye.

Jake Ferguson is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

Jake Ferguson has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.