Should I start Baker Mayfield or Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Baker Mayfield, and the board ranks him 108th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 20.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Brian Thomas Jr., and the board ranks him 128th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Baker Mayfield is 15.6 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 14 market sources. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Brian Thomas Jr.'s market-based projection is 3.7 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 129th highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Baker Mayfield has been on the field for 97 percent of TB snaps, dropped back 134 times and thrown 8.4 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 23 of 134 dropbacks and scrambled 10 times.

In Week 3 against MIN he completed 17 of 34 passes for 217 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 6 yards.

In Week 7 against CAR he completed 7 of 11 passes for 64 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 8 against ATL he completed 0 of 3 passes for 0 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 15 yards.

Through Week 8, Brian Thomas Jr. has been on the field for 52 percent of JAX snaps, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 25 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 5 third down targets.

His 2 targets have averaged 19.0 air yards.

In Week 8 against IND he caught 1 of 2 targets for 12 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Baker Mayfield played 17 games and scored 282.9 PPR points, 16.6 a game, finishing QB12.

He threw for 3693 yards on 543 attempts with 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and ran for 382 yards and 1 touchdown.

That came to 31.9 attempts a game at 6.8 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Brian Thomas Jr. played 14 games and scored 138.8 PPR points, 9.9 a game, finishing WR42.

He caught 48 of 91 targets for 707 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 6 red zone targets.

That came to 6-7 targets a game, a 53 percent catch rate and 14.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 79 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Baker Mayfield was available for 3 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Baker Mayfield scored 16.6 PPR points a game and Brian Thomas Jr. 9.9, 6.7 a game between them.

Baker Mayfield finished QB12 and Brian Thomas Jr. WR42, which are two different ladders.

Baker Mayfield is a quarterback and Brian Thomas Jr. a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Baker Mayfield is off in Week 10 and Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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