Should I start Bijan Robinson or James Cook III in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Bijan Robinson, and the board ranks him 1st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on James Cook III, and the board ranks him 70th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 2; 2QB: ADP 10.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Bijan Robinson is 25.3 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 7 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.

The market-based projection for James Cook III is 4.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 5 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Bijan Robinson has been on the field for 71 percent of ATL snaps, taken 66 percent of the carries, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 43 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 62 third down targets, had 7 of its 15 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 33 targets have come 1.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against CHI he carried 9 times for 61 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for -8 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against SF he carried 20 times for 63 yards, caught 5 of 5 targets for 45 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against TB he carried 19 times for 76 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, James Cook III has taken 54 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 35 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 7 third down targets, had 2 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 2 two minute targets.

His 3 targets have averaged 2.7 air yards.

In Week 8 against BAL he carried 21 times for 80 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 21 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Bijan Robinson played 17 games and scored 370.8 PPR points, 21.8 a game, finishing RB2.

He carried 287 times for 1478 yards and 7 touchdowns, and caught 79 of 103 targets for 820 more yards.

That came to 16.9 carries a game at 5.1 yards a carry and 4.6 catches a game.

He was on the field for 78 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 Bijan Robinson scored 21.8 PPR points a game and James Cook III 17.8, 4.0 a game between them.

Bijan Robinson finished RB2 that year and James Cook III RB6.

James Cook III had 22 more carries than Bijan Robinson, 309 to 287.

Bijan Robinson had 46 more catches than James Cook III, 79 to 33.

This season Bijan Robinson holds the bigger share of the carries, 66 percent against 54 percent.

Byes and availability

Bijan Robinson is off in Week 11 and James Cook III in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

James Cook III is listed as questionable on the injury report.