James Cook III or DeVonta Smith: who should I start in Week 5?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on James Cook III: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 32nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 2; 2QB: ADP 10.

Drafters have formed no consensus on DeVonta Smith: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 33rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 11; 2QB: ADP 28.

What the player markets price

The player markets price James Cook III at 14.6 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 16 market sources. That is the 50th highest figure of the 212 players the market prices.

No season market is posted for DeVonta Smith, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

This season so far

Through Week 4, James Cook III has been on the field for 68 percent of BUF snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 38 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 31 third down targets, had 4 of its 13 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 22 two minute targets.

His 10 targets have come 0.8 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 2 against DET he carried 21 times for 135 yards, caught 1 of 3 targets for 4 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against LAC he carried 24 times for 154 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 4 against NE he carried 12 times for 75 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 8 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 3, DeVonta Smith has been on the field for 93 percent of PHI snaps, drawn 33 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 10 of the offence's 28 third down targets, had 0 of its 6 chances inside the five and seen 10 of its 18 two minute targets.

His 27 targets have averaged 12.0 air yards.

In Week 1 against WAS he caught 3 of 6 targets for 53 yards and did not score.

In Week 2 against TEN he caught 10 of 13 targets for 117 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against CHI he caught 6 of 8 targets for 65 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 James Cook III played 17 games and scored 302.2 PPR points, 17.8 a game, finishing RB6.

He carried 309 times for 1621 yards and 12 touchdowns, and caught 33 of 40 targets for 291 more yards.

That came to 18.2 carries a game at 5.2 yards a carry and 1.9 catches a game.

He was on the field for 60 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 DeVonta Smith played 17 games and scored 201.8 PPR points, 11.9 a game, finishing WR20.

He caught 77 of 113 targets for 1008 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 10 red zone targets.

That came to 6.6 targets a game, a 68 percent catch rate and 13.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 89 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 James Cook III scored 17.8 PPR points a game and DeVonta Smith 11.9, 5.9 a game between them.

James Cook III finished RB6 and DeVonta Smith WR20, which are two different ladders.

James Cook III is a running back and DeVonta Smith a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

James Cook III is off in Week 7 and DeVonta Smith in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

DeVonta Smith is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

DeVonta Smith has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.