Should I start Gunnar Helm or Chase Brown in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

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

Live drafts hold no current pick on Chase Brown, and the board ranks him 74th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 5; 2QB: ADP 19.

The market-based projections

Gunnar Helm's market-based projection is 4.4 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 4 market sources. That is the 84th highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Chase Brown is 4.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 7 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.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Gunnar Helm has been on the field for 78 percent of TEN snaps, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 59 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have averaged 5.1 air yards.

In Week 5 against HOU he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against IND he was not given the ball.

In Week 7 against CLE he caught 3 of 4 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

Through Week 7, Chase Brown has been on the field for 71 percent of CIN snaps, taken 63 percent of the carries, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 27 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 53 third down targets, had 4 of its 15 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 36 two minute targets.

His 33 targets have come 0.8 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 4 against JAX he carried 9 times for 10 yards, caught 11 of 11 targets for 71 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against MIA he carried 13 times for 39 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 21 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against BAL he carried 11 times for 39 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 19 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Gunnar Helm played 16 games and scored 91.7 PPR points, 5.7 a game, finishing TE31.

He caught 44 of 55 targets for 357 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets.

That came to 3.4 targets a game, a 80 percent catch rate and 8.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 53 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Chase Brown played 17 games and scored 282.6 PPR points, 16.6 a game, finishing RB7.

He carried 232 times for 1019 yards and 6 touchdowns, and caught 69 of 88 targets for 437 more yards.

That came to 13.6 carries a game at 4.4 yards a carry and 4.1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 67 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Chase Brown was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Chase Brown scored 16.6 PPR points a game and Gunnar Helm 5.7, 10.9 a game between them.

Gunnar Helm finished TE31 and Chase Brown RB7, which are two different ladders.

Gunnar Helm is a tight end and Chase Brown a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Chase Brown is off in Week 6. No bye is listed for Gunnar Helm.

What would change the answer

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