Should I start Bucky Irving or Nico Collins in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Bucky Irving, and the board ranks him 8th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Nico Collins, and the board ranks him 9th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Bucky Irving is 15.5 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 9 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.

Nico Collins's market-based projection is 15.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 7 market sources. That is the 17th highest figure of the 213 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 8, Bucky Irving has been on the field for 63 percent of TB snaps, taken 57 percent of the carries, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 45 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 6 of its 14 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 23 targets have come 2.0 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against PIT he carried 19 times for 46 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 3 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CAR he carried 24 times for 106 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 4 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 8 against ATL he carried 27 times for 170 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 7, Nico Collins has been on the field for 71 percent of HOU snaps, drawn 22 percent of the targets and had 13 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 8 of the offence's 34 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 35 targets have averaged 12.5 air yards.

In Week 5 against TEN he caught 5 of 7 targets for 56 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against JAX he carried 1 time for 5 yards, caught 3 of 5 targets for 74 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against NYG he caught 2 of 5 targets for 6 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Bucky Irving played 10 games and scored 138.5 PPR points, 13.9 a game, finishing RB34.

He carried 173 times for 588 yards and 1 touchdown, and caught 30 of 35 targets for 277 more yards.

That came to 17.3 carries a game at 3.4 yards a carry and 3.0 catches a game.

He was on the field for 62 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Nico Collins played 15 games and scored 226.2 PPR points, 15.1 a game, finishing WR8.

He caught 71 of 120 targets for 1117 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 16 red zone targets.

That came to 8.0 targets a game, a 59 percent catch rate and 15.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 77 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Nico Collins was available for 5 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Nico Collins scored 15.1 PPR points a game and Bucky Irving 13.9, 1.2 a game between them.

Bucky Irving finished RB34 and Nico Collins WR8, which are two different ladders.

Bucky Irving is a running back and Nico Collins a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Bucky Irving is off in Week 10 and Nico Collins in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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