Should I start Jonathan Taylor or Evan Engram in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jonathan Taylor, and the board ranks him 56th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 4.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Evan Engram, and the board ranks him 57th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Jonathan Taylor is 5.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Evan Engram's market-based projection is 4.6 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 53rd highest figure of the 211 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Jonathan Taylor has been on the field for 78 percent of IND snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 47 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 64 third down targets, had 15 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have come 1.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against TEN he carried 21 times for 94 yards, caught 2 of 4 targets for 57 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against MIN he carried 18 times for 95 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against JAX he carried 8 times for 23 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Evan Engram has been on the field for 54 percent of DEN snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 3 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 9 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 0 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 25 targets have averaged 5.1 air yards.

In Week 6 against SEA he caught 2 of 2 targets for 13 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against ARI he caught 1 of 3 targets for 2 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against KC he caught 0 of 3 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor played 17 games and scored 362.3 PPR points, 21.3 a game, finishing RB4.

He carried 323 times for 1585 yards and 18 touchdowns, and caught 46 of 55 targets for 378 more yards.

That came to 19.0 carries a game at 4.9 yards a carry and 2.7 catches a game.

He was on the field for 84 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Evan Engram played 16 games and scored 102.8 PPR points, 6.4 a game, finishing TE29.

He caught 50 of 76 targets for 461 yards and 1 touchdown, with 10 red zone targets.

That came to 4.8 targets a game, a 66 percent catch rate and 9.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 42 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jonathan Taylor was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor scored 21.3 PPR points a game and Evan Engram 6.4, 14.9 a game between them.

Jonathan Taylor finished RB4 and Evan Engram TE29, which are two different ladders.

Jonathan Taylor is a running back and Evan Engram a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Jonathan Taylor is off in Week 13 and Evan Engram in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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