Should I start Darren Waller or Kayshon Boutte in Week 6?

The market-based projections

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 7.1 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 109th highest figure of the 168 players with a market-based projection.

Kayshon Boutte's market-based projection is 6.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 119th highest figure of the 168 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Darren Waller: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 128th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Kayshon Boutte: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 130th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 4, Darren Waller has been on the field for 46 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 10 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 5 of the offence's 32 third down targets, had 0 of its 9 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 25 two minute targets.

His 19 targets have averaged 7.4 air yards.

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

In Week 3 against CLE he caught 5 of 8 targets for 51 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DET he caught 3 of 6 targets for 36 yards and did not score.

Through Week 5, Kayshon Boutte has been on the field for 61 percent of HOU snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 6 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 0 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 18 targets have averaged 12.7 air yards.

In Week 3 against IND he caught 2 of 2 targets for 21 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DAL he caught 3 of 4 targets for 36 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TEN he caught 3 of 5 targets for 38 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 Kayshon Boutte played 14 games and scored 124.1 PPR points, 8.9 a game, finishing WR51.

He caught 33 of 46 targets for 551 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 3.3 targets a game, a 72 percent catch rate and 16.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 68 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Kayshon Boutte was available for 5 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Darren Waller scored 9.9 PPR points a game and Kayshon Boutte 8.9, 1.0 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Kayshon Boutte WR51, which are two different ladders.

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

Byes and availability

Kayshon Boutte is off in Week 8. No bye is listed for Darren Waller.

Darren Waller is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

1.0 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.