Should I start David Montgomery or Ja'Kobi Lane in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on David Montgomery, and the board ranks him 57th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 33.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Ja'Kobi Lane, and the board ranks him 67th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for David Montgomery is 5.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Ja'Kobi Lane's market-based projection is 3.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 64th highest figure of the 212 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 5, David Montgomery has been on the field for 46 percent of HOU snaps, taken 45 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 28 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 3 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 3.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against IND he carried 11 times for 33 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 15 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DAL he carried 10 times for 24 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TEN he carried 5 times for 11 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Ja'Kobi Lane has been on the field for 56 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 15 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 9 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 1 of its 8 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 14 targets have averaged 10.6 air yards.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 4 of 5 targets for 40 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 3 of 5 targets for 25 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 1 of 1 target for 13 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 David Montgomery played 17 games and scored 166.9 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing RB27.

He carried 158 times for 716 yards and 8 touchdowns, and caught 24 of 29 targets for 192 more yards.

That came to 9.3 carries a game at 5 yards a carry and 1.4 catches a game.

He was on the field for 37 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Ja'Kobi Lane is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

Side by side

David Montgomery is a running back and Ja'Kobi Lane a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

David Montgomery is off in Week 8 and Ja'Kobi Lane in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.

David Montgomery is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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