Seth McGowan or AJ Barner: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Seth McGowan: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 107th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on AJ Barner: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 108th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Seth McGowan is 2.9 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 10 market sources. That is 70 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

AJ Barner's market-based projection is 6.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 91st highest figure of the 146 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 5

Through Week 5, Seth McGowan has been on the field for 18 percent of IND snaps, taken 13 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 4 targets have averaged 0.8 air yards.

In Week 3 against HOU he carried 4 times for 14 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against WAS he carried 6 times for 31 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against PIT he carried 5 times for 16 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 3 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

Seth McGowan is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

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.

Side by side

Seth McGowan is a running back 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

Seth McGowan is only part priced, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.