Should I start Joe Burrow or Devaughn Vele in Week 7?

The market-based projections

Joe Burrow's market-based projection is 17.2 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 19th highest figure of the 216 players with a market-based projection.

Devaughn Vele's market-based projection is 9.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 88th highest figure of the 216 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Joe Burrow, and the board ranks him 80th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Devaughn Vele, and the board ranks him 81st overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 5, Joe Burrow has been on the field for 100 percent of CIN snaps, dropped back 204 times and thrown 7.2 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 36 of 204 dropbacks and scrambled 6 times.

In Week 3 against PIT he completed 28 of 37 passes for 282 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 13 yards.

In Week 4 against JAX he completed 39 of 54 passes for 428 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 3 times for 6 yards.

In Week 5 against MIA he completed 23 of 32 passes for 190 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 12 yards.

Through Week 6, Devaughn Vele has been on the field for 91 percent of NO snaps, drawn 19 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 15 of the offence's 59 third down targets, had 2 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 6 of its 37 two minute targets.

His 43 targets have averaged 10.3 air yards.

In Week 4 against ATL he caught 6 of 9 targets for 54 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against MIN he caught 4 of 6 targets for 26 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against NYG he caught 3 of 6 targets for 42 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Joe Burrow played 8 games and scored 139.5 PPR points, 17.4 a game, finishing QB29.

He threw for 1809 yards on 259 attempts with 17 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and ran for 41 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 32.4 attempts a game at 7.0 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 86 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Devaughn Vele played 13 games and scored 66.3 PPR points, 5.1 a game, finishing WR95.

He caught 25 of 39 targets for 293 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 3.0 targets a game, a 64 percent catch rate and 11.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 51 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Devaughn Vele was available for 5 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Joe Burrow scored 17.4 PPR points a game and Devaughn Vele 5.1, 12.3 a game between them.

Joe Burrow finished QB29 and Devaughn Vele WR95, which are two different ladders.

Joe Burrow is a quarterback and Devaughn Vele a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Joe Burrow is off in Week 6 and Devaughn Vele in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

7.9 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 live drafts hold these two again they can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the drafts rather than the market-based projection when they do.