Should I start George Kittle or Rashod Bateman in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on George Kittle, and the board ranks him 150th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rashod Bateman, and the board ranks him 151st 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.

Rashod Bateman's market-based projection is 3.7 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 144th highest figure of the 225 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, Rashod Bateman has been on the field for 71 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 1 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 47 two minute targets.

His 29 targets have averaged 13.8 air yards.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 2 of 4 targets for 33 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 1 of 3 targets for 22 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 Rashod Bateman played 13 games and scored 55.4 PPR points, 4.3 a game, finishing WR102.

He caught 19 of 38 targets for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 2.9 targets a game, a 50 percent catch rate and 11.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 69 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rashod Bateman was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 George Kittle scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Rashod Bateman 4.3, 10.4 a game between them.

George Kittle finished TE13 and Rashod Bateman WR102, which are two different ladders.

George Kittle is a tight end and Rashod Bateman a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

George Kittle is off in Week 8 and Rashod Bateman in Week 13, 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.