Should I start Jalen Royals or AJ Barner in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Jalen Royals: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 126th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on AJ Barner: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 127th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Jalen Royals's market-based projection is 6.2 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 118th highest figure of the 168 players with a market-based projection.

No season market is posted for AJ Barner, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

This season so far

Through Week 4, Jalen Royals has been on the field for 31 percent of KC snaps, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 3 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 25 third down targets, had 1 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 12 two minute targets.

His 5 targets have averaged 5.8 air yards.

In Week 2 against IND he caught 2 of 2 targets for 6 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against MIA he caught 1 of 1 target for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against LV he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

Through Week 5, AJ Barner has been on the field for 89 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 14 percent of the targets and had 12 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 3 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 20 two minute targets.

His 20 targets have averaged 2.1 air yards.

In Week 3 against WAS he caught 5 of 9 targets for 69 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against LAC he caught 1 of 3 targets for 12 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against SF he caught 3 of 5 targets for 20 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Jalen Royals played 7 games and scored 2.4 PPR points, 0.3 a game.

He caught 2 of 3 targets for 4 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 0 red zone targets.

That came to 0.4 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 2.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 9 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

AJ Barner was available for 10 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 AJ Barner scored 8.7 PPR points a game and Jalen Royals 0.3, 8.3 a game between them.

Jalen Royals is a wide receiver and AJ Barner a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

What would change the answer

AJ Barner has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.