Kirk Cousins or Darnell Washington: who should I start in Week 6?

The market-based projections

Kirk Cousins's market-based projection is 15.2 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 40th highest figure of the 157 players with a market-based projection.

Darnell Washington's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 9 market sources. That is the 112th highest figure of the 157 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Kirk Cousins: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 114th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Darnell Washington: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 115th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season through Week 5

Through Week 5, Kirk Cousins has been on the field for 97 percent of LV snaps, dropped back 180 times and thrown 8.3 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 34 of 180 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.

In Week 3 against NO he completed 22 of 33 passes for 248 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

In Week 4 against KC he completed 31 of 49 passes for 365 yards and threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

In Week 5 against NE he completed 19 of 28 passes for 243 yards and threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Kirk Cousins played 10 games and scored 108.5 PPR points, 10.9 a game, finishing QB35.

He threw for 1721 yards on 269 attempts with 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and ran for 7 yards and 1 touchdown.

That came to 26.9 attempts a game at 6.4 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 46 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Darnell Washington was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Kirk Cousins scored 10.9 PPR points a game and Darnell Washington 4.6, 6.3 a game between them.

Kirk Cousins finished QB35 and Darnell Washington TE39, which are two different ladders.

Kirk Cousins is a quarterback and Darnell Washington a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

What would change the answer

9.4 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.