Should I start Jonathan Taylor or Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jonathan Taylor, and the board ranks him 71st overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 4.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Brian Thomas Jr., and the board ranks him 72nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Jonathan Taylor is 4.6 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Brian Thomas Jr.'s market-based projection is 3.5 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 54th highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Jonathan Taylor has been on the field for 80 percent of IND snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 47 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 64 third down targets, had 15 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have come 1.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against TEN he carried 21 times for 94 yards, caught 2 of 4 targets for 57 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against MIN he carried 18 times for 95 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against JAX he carried 8 times for 23 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Brian Thomas Jr. has 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 Jonathan Taylor played 17 games and scored 362.3 PPR points, 21.3 a game, finishing RB4.

He carried 323 times for 1585 yards and 18 touchdowns, and caught 46 of 55 targets for 378 more yards.

That came to 19.0 carries a game at 4.9 yards a carry and 2.7 catches a game.

He was on the field for 84 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.

Jonathan Taylor was available for 3 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor scored 21.3 PPR points a game and Brian Thomas Jr. 9.9, 11.4 a game between them.

Jonathan Taylor finished RB4 and Brian Thomas Jr. WR42, which are two different ladders.

Jonathan Taylor is a running back 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

Jonathan Taylor is off in Week 13 and Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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