Should I start Mike Gesicki or George Kittle in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Mike Gesicki, and the board ranks him 45th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on George Kittle, and the board ranks him 60th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Mike Gesicki's market-based projection is 7.5 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 7 market sources. That is the 24th highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for George Kittle is 4.6 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a tight end's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a 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 8, Mike Gesicki has been on the field for 45 percent of CIN snaps, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 61 third down targets, had 3 of its 17 chances inside the five and seen 8 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 24 targets have averaged 11.1 air yards.

In Week 5 against MIA he caught 1 of 2 targets for 4 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against BAL he caught 1 of 1 target for 6 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against TEN he caught 4 of 6 targets for 76 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Mike Gesicki played 13 games and scored 70.7 PPR points, 5.4 a game, finishing TE41.

He caught 28 of 42 targets for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets.

That came to 3.2 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 11.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 38 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Mike Gesicki was available for 2 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 George Kittle scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Mike Gesicki 5.4, 9.2 a game between them.

Mike Gesicki finished TE41 that year and George Kittle TE13.

George Kittle had 27 more targets than Mike Gesicki, 69 to 42.

George Kittle had 321 more receiving yards than Mike Gesicki, 628 to 307.

This season George Kittle holds the bigger snap share, 78 percent against 45 percent.

This season George Kittle holds the bigger target share, 22 percent against 9 percent.

Byes and availability

Mike Gesicki is off in Week 6 and George Kittle in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

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.