Ashton Jeanty or James Cook III: who should I start?

Where the draft room has them

Ashton Jeanty goes at ADP 3, an average pick of 20.1, and the board has him RB7 in tier 5.

His earliest recorded pick is 7 and his latest 26, a standard deviation of 5.1 picks.

He appears in 846 recorded drafts across the formats the consensus sample covers.

Over 14 days drafters have taken Jeanty 1.0 picks earlier.

By format he goes standard: ADP 8; 2QB: ADP 39.

Drafters have formed no consensus on James Cook III: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 184th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 2; 2QB: ADP 13.

What the sportsbooks price

The player markets price Ashton Jeanty at 16.8 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 18 books. That is the 24th highest figure of the 179 players the books price.

No sportsbook has posted a season market for James Cook III, so the only market pricing him on this page is the draft room.

This season through Week 1

Through Week 1, Ashton Jeanty has been on the field for 74 percent of LV snaps, taken 68 percent of the carries, drawn 21 percent of the targets and had 58 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 8 third down targets and seen 2 of its 4 two minute targets.

His 6 targets have averaged 3.0 air yards.

In Week 1 against MIA he carried 23 times for 102 yards, caught 6 of 6 targets for 45 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

Through Week 1, James Cook III has been on the field for 72 percent of BUF snaps, taken 65 percent of the carries, drawn 14 percent of the targets and had 43 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 8 third down targets, had 0 of its 2 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 6 two minute targets.

His 4 targets have come 1.0 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 1 against HOU he carried 13 times for 57 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 12 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Ashton Jeanty played 17 games and scored 245.1 PPR points, 14.4 a game, finishing RB11.

He carried 266 times for 975 yards and 5 touchdowns, and caught 55 of 73 targets for 346 more yards.

That came to 15.6 carries a game at 3.7 yards a carry and 3.2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 76 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 James Cook III played 17 games and scored 302.2 PPR points, 17.8 a game, finishing RB6.

He carried 309 times for 1621 yards and 12 touchdowns, and caught 33 of 40 targets for 291 more yards.

That came to 18.2 carries a game at 5.2 yards a carry and 1.9 catches a game.

He was on the field for 60 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Head to head

In 2025 James Cook III scored 17.8 PPR points a game and Ashton Jeanty 14.4, 3.4 a game between them.

Ashton Jeanty finished RB11 that year and James Cook III RB6.

James Cook III had 43 more carries than Ashton Jeanty, 309 to 266.

Ashton Jeanty had 22 more catches than James Cook III, 55 to 33.

This season Ashton Jeanty holds the bigger snap share, 74 percent against 72 percent.

This season Ashton Jeanty holds the bigger share of the carries, 68 percent against 65 percent.

Byes and availability

Ashton Jeanty is off in Week 13 and James Cook III in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

James Cook III has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.