Should I start T.J. Hockenson or Darius Cooper in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on T.J. Hockenson, and the board ranks him 24th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darius Cooper, and the board ranks him 25th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

T.J. Hockenson's market-based projection is 10.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 17th highest figure of the 177 players with a market-based projection.

No season market is posted for Darius Cooper, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

This season so far

Through Week 7, T.J. Hockenson has been on the field for 60 percent of MIN snaps, drawn 21 percent of the targets and had 18 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 11 of the offence's 59 third down targets, had 1 of its 3 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 14 two minute targets.

His 32 targets have averaged 6.8 air yards.

In Week 4 against MIA he caught 13 of 13 targets for 119 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against NO he caught 1 of 1 target for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against IND he caught 4 of 5 targets for 35 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 6, Darius Cooper has been on the field for 52 percent of PHI snaps, drawn 8 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 58 third down targets, had 2 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 29 two minute targets.

His 15 targets have averaged 12.3 air yards.

In Week 4 against LAR he caught 3 of 7 targets for 33 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 5 against JAX he caught 2 of 3 targets for 71 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against CAR he caught 1 of 2 targets for 9 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 T.J. Hockenson played 15 games and scored 112.8 PPR points, 7.5 a game, finishing TE26.

He caught 51 of 66 targets for 438 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 11 red zone targets.

That came to 4.4 targets a game, a 77 percent catch rate and 8.6 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 79 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Darius Cooper played 13 games and scored 18.2 PPR points, 1.4 a game.

He caught 9 of 11 targets for 92 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 0 red zone targets.

That came to 0.8 targets a game, a 82 percent catch rate and 10.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 19 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

T.J. Hockenson was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 T.J. Hockenson scored 7.5 PPR points a game and Darius Cooper 1.4, 6.1 a game between them.

T.J. Hockenson is a tight end and Darius Cooper a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

T.J. Hockenson is off in Week 6 and Darius Cooper in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Darius Cooper has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.