Should I start George Kittle or Elijah Higgins in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on George Kittle, and the board ranks him 159th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Elijah Higgins, and the board ranks him 172nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for George Kittle is 4.3 PPR points a game off 1 market across 10 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a tight end's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Elijah Higgins's market-based projection is 3.7 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 142nd highest figure of the 226 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 7, George Kittle has been on the field for 78 percent of SF snaps, drawn 22 percent of the targets and had 15 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 50 third down targets, had 1 of its 24 chances inside the five and seen 8 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 46 targets have averaged 7.7 air yards.

In Week 5 against SEA he caught 5 of 6 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against WAS he caught 5 of 8 targets for 69 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against ATL he caught 8 of 10 targets for 88 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Elijah Higgins has been on the field for 39 percent of ARI snaps, drawn 6 percent of the targets and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 88 third down targets, had 1 of its 29 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 57 two minute targets.

His 18 targets have averaged 2.7 air yards.

In Week 6 against LAR he caught 3 of 3 targets for 28 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against DEN he caught 3 of 3 targets for 17 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against DAL he caught 2 of 4 targets for 10 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 George Kittle played 11 games and scored 161.5 PPR points, 14.7 a game, finishing TE13.

He caught 57 of 69 targets for 628 yards and 7 touchdowns, with 12 red zone targets.

That came to 6.3 targets a game, a 83 percent catch rate and 11.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 80 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Elijah Higgins played 17 games and scored 58.1 PPR points, 3.4 a game, finishing TE48.

He caught 30 of 37 targets for 301 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 2.2 targets a game, a 81 percent catch rate and 10.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 41 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Elijah Higgins was available for 6 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 George Kittle scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Elijah Higgins 3.4, 11.3 a game between them.

George Kittle finished TE13 that year and Elijah Higgins TE48.

George Kittle had 32 more targets than Elijah Higgins, 69 to 37.

George Kittle had 327 more receiving yards than Elijah Higgins, 628 to 301.

This season George Kittle holds the bigger snap share, 78 percent against 39 percent.

This season George Kittle holds the bigger target share, 22 percent against 6 percent.

Byes and availability

George Kittle is off in Week 8. No bye is listed for Elijah Higgins.

What would change the answer

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