George Pickens or James Cook III: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on George Pickens: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 15th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on James Cook III: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 16th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 2; 2QB: ADP 10.

What the player markets price

The player markets price George Pickens at 14.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 6 market sources. That is the 18th highest figure of the 107 players the market prices.

No season market is posted for James Cook III, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

This season so far

Through Week 5, George Pickens has been on the field for 84 percent of DAL snaps, drawn 22 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 17 of the offence's 46 third down targets, had 3 of its 22 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 31 two minute targets.

His 41 targets have averaged 11.4 air yards.

In Week 3 against BAL he caught 7 of 11 targets for 82 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against HOU he caught 2 of 3 targets for 75 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TB he caught 9 of 13 targets for 130 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 4, James Cook III has been on the field for 68 percent of BUF snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 38 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 31 third down targets, had 4 of its 13 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 22 two minute targets.

His 10 targets have come 0.8 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 2 against DET he carried 21 times for 135 yards, caught 1 of 3 targets for 4 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against LAC he carried 24 times for 154 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 4 against NE he carried 12 times for 75 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 8 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 George Pickens played 17 games and scored 291.9 PPR points, 17.2 a game, finishing WR5.

He caught 93 of 137 targets for 1429 yards and 9 touchdowns, with 21 red zone targets.

That came to 8.1 targets a game, a 68 percent catch rate and 15.4 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 83 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 James Cook III played 17 games and scored 302.2 PPR points, 17.8 a game, finishing RB6.

He carried 309 times for 1621 yards and 12 touchdowns, and caught 33 of 40 targets for 291 more yards.

That came to 18.2 carries a game at 5.2 yards a carry and 1.9 catches a game.

He was on the field for 60 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 James Cook III scored 17.8 PPR points a game and George Pickens 17.2, 0.6 a game between them.

George Pickens finished WR5 and James Cook III RB6, which are two different ladders.

George Pickens is a wide receiver and James Cook III a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

George Pickens is off in Week 14 and James Cook III in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

James Cook III has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.