Should I start Darren Waller or Mike Evans in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 52nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Mike Evans, and the board ranks him 53rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 4.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 6 market sources. That is the 48th highest figure of the 211 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Mike Evans is 4.6 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.

Mike Evans's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season so far

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.

Through Week 6, Mike Evans has been on the field for 55 percent of SF snaps, drawn 23 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 19 of the offence's 43 third down targets, had 2 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 25 two minute targets.

His 39 targets have averaged 14.6 air yards.

In Week 4 against DEN he caught 5 of 8 targets for 76 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against SEA he caught 7 of 10 targets for 113 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against WAS he caught 3 of 5 targets for 94 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 Mike Evans played 8 games and scored 84.8 PPR points, 10.6 a game, finishing WR76.

He caught 30 of 61 targets for 368 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 7.6 targets a game, a 49 percent catch rate and 12.3 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 65 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Darren Waller was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Mike Evans scored 10.6 PPR points a game and Darren Waller 9.9, 0.7 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Mike Evans WR76, which are two different ladders.

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

Byes and availability

Darren Waller is off in Week 5 and Mike Evans in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

Mike Evans is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

Mike Evans has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.