Should I start Darnell Washington or Jalen Royals in Week 6?

The market-based projections

Darnell Washington's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 121st highest figure of the 168 players with a market-based projection.

Jalen Royals's market-based projection is 5.2 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 125th highest figure of the 168 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Darnell Washington: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 140th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Jalen Royals: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 139th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 5, Darnell Washington has been on the field for 65 percent of PIT snaps, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 40 third down targets, had 0 of its 2 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 16 targets have averaged 5.2 air yards.

In Week 3 against CIN he caught 3 of 4 targets for 67 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against CLE he caught 3 of 5 targets for 27 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against IND he caught 2 of 3 targets for 12 yards and did not score.

Through Week 4, Jalen Royals has been on the field for 31 percent of KC snaps, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 3 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 25 third down targets, had 1 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 12 two minute targets.

His 5 targets have averaged 5.8 air yards.

In Week 2 against IND he caught 2 of 2 targets for 6 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against MIA he caught 1 of 1 target for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against LV he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Darnell Washington played 16 games and scored 73.4 PPR points, 4.6 a game, finishing TE39.

He caught 31 of 43 targets for 364 yards and 1 touchdown, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 2.7 targets a game, a 72 percent catch rate and 11.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 57 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Jalen Royals played 7 games and scored 2.4 PPR points, 0.3 a game.

He caught 2 of 3 targets for 4 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 0 red zone targets.

That came to 0.4 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 2.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 9 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Darnell Washington was available for 9 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Darnell Washington scored 4.6 PPR points a game and Jalen Royals 0.3, 4.2 a game between them.

Darnell Washington is a tight end and Jalen Royals a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

What would change the answer

0.7 points a game is the entire case. The market restates it every week, and a line that moves moves the order with it.

The draft market is the half that is missing: when the consensus sample holds these two again it can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the sample rather than the market-based projection when it does.