Should I start Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Darren Waller in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and the board ranks him 47th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 8.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 48th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Jaxon Smith-Njigba is 5.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 4.8 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 10 market sources. That is the 48th highest figure of the 212 players with a market-based projection.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been on the field for 83 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 36 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 30 of the offence's 70 third down targets, had 2 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 18 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 89 targets have averaged 10.5 air yards.

In Week 6 against DEN he caught 12 of 16 targets for 134 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against KC he carried 2 times for 13 yards, caught 9 of 12 targets for 150 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against CHI he caught 6 of 11 targets for 118 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 8, Darren Waller has been on the field for 48 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 10 percent of the targets and had 6 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 9 of the offence's 53 third down targets, had 0 of its 13 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 34 two minute targets.

His 25 targets have averaged 9.4 air yards.

In Week 6 against PHI he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against TB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 50 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against GB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 11 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Jaxon Smith-Njigba played 17 games and scored 359.9 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing WR2.

He caught 119 of 163 targets for 1793 yards and 10 touchdowns, with 17 red zone targets.

That came to 9.6 targets a game, a 73 percent catch rate and 15.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Darren Waller played 9 games and scored 88.7 PPR points, 9.9 a game, finishing TE33.

He caught 24 of 34 targets for 283 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets.

That came to 3.8 targets a game, a 71 percent catch rate and 11.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 45 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba was available for 8 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jaxon Smith-Njigba scored 21.2 PPR points a game and Darren Waller 9.9, 11.3 a game between them.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba finished WR2 and Darren Waller TE33, which are two different ladders.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a wide receiver and Darren Waller a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is off in Week 11 and Darren Waller in Week 5, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Jaxon Smith-Njigba has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.