Should I start Patrick Mahomes or DeVonta Smith in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Patrick Mahomes, and the board ranks him 120th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on DeVonta Smith, and the board ranks him 121st overall on the rest of his evidence.

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

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Patrick Mahomes is 1.4 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 0 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

The market-based projection for DeVonta Smith is 2.3 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.

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

This season so far

Through Week 8, Patrick Mahomes has been on the field for 100 percent of KC snaps, dropped back 254 times and thrown 5.8 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 41 of 254 dropbacks and scrambled 13 times.

In Week 6 against LAC he completed 23 of 30 passes for 272 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 3 times for 19 yards.

In Week 7 against SEA he completed 19 of 33 passes for 165 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 14 yards.

In Week 8 against DEN he completed 30 of 41 passes for 321 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 6 yards.

Through Week 6, DeVonta Smith has been on the field for 86 percent of PHI snaps, drawn 33 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 15 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 0 of its 8 chances inside the five and seen 10 of its 18 two minute targets.

His 41 targets have averaged 12.2 air yards.

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.

In Week 6 against CAR he caught 7 of 14 targets for 75 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes played 14 games and scored 296.7 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing QB11.

He threw for 3587 yards on 502 attempts with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and ran for 422 yards and 5 touchdowns.

That came to 35.9 attempts a game at 7.1 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 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.

DeVonta Smith was available for 3 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes scored 21.2 PPR points a game and DeVonta Smith 11.9, 9.3 a game between them.

Patrick Mahomes finished QB11 and DeVonta Smith WR20, which are two different ladders.

Patrick Mahomes is a quarterback 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

Patrick Mahomes is off in Week 5 and DeVonta Smith in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

DeVonta Smith is listed as out on the injury report.