Should I start Mike Evans or Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Mike Evans, and the board ranks him 126th overall on the rest of his evidence.

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 Mike Evans is 4.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 8 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver'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.

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

This season so far

Through Week 6, Mike Evans has been on the field for 55 percent of SF snaps, drawn 23 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 19 of the offence's 43 third down targets, had 2 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 25 two minute targets.

His 39 targets have averaged 14.6 air yards.

In Week 4 against DEN he caught 5 of 8 targets for 76 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against SEA he caught 7 of 10 targets for 113 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against WAS he caught 3 of 5 targets for 94 yards and did not score.

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 Mike Evans played 8 games and scored 84.8 PPR points, 10.6 a game, finishing WR76.

He caught 30 of 61 targets for 368 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 7.6 targets a game, a 49 percent catch rate and 12.3 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 65 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.

Brian Thomas Jr. was available for 6 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Mike Evans scored 10.6 PPR points a game and Brian Thomas Jr. 9.9, 0.7 a game between them.

Mike Evans finished WR76 that year and Brian Thomas Jr. WR42.

Brian Thomas Jr. had 30 more targets than Mike Evans, 91 to 61.

Brian Thomas Jr. had 339 more receiving yards than Mike Evans, 707 to 368.

This season Mike Evans holds the bigger snap share, 55 percent against 52 percent.

This season Mike Evans holds the bigger target share, 23 percent against 12 percent.

Byes and availability

Mike Evans is off in Week 8 and Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

Mike Evans is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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