Should I start Elijah Higgins or Kenny Gainwell in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Elijah Higgins, and the board ranks him 146th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Kenny Gainwell, and the board ranks him 147th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Elijah Higgins's market-based projection is 4.8 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 109th highest figure of the 220 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Kenny Gainwell is 1.3 PPR points a game off 1 market across 10 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 8

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.

Through Week 8, Kenny Gainwell has been on the field for 37 percent of TB snaps, taken 22 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 0 of its 14 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 18 targets have come 2.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against PIT he carried 2 times for 17 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CAR he carried 14 times for 88 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against ATL he carried 25 times for 140 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 Kenny Gainwell played 17 games and scored 222.3 PPR points, 13.1 a game, finishing RB16.

He carried 114 times for 537 yards and 5 touchdowns, and caught 73 of 85 targets for 486 more yards.

That came to 6.7 carries a game at 4.7 yards a carry and 4.3 catches a game.

He was on the field for 49 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 Kenny Gainwell scored 13.1 PPR points a game and Elijah Higgins 3.4, 9.7 a game between them.

Elijah Higgins finished TE48 and Kenny Gainwell RB16, which are two different ladders.

Elijah Higgins is a tight end and Kenny Gainwell a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Kenny Gainwell is off in Week 10. No bye is listed for Elijah Higgins.

What would change the answer

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