Should I start Ja'Kobi Lane or James Cook III in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Ja'Kobi Lane, and the board ranks him 68th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on James Cook III, and the board ranks him 70th overall on the rest of his evidence.

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

The market-based projections

Ja'Kobi Lane's market-based projection is 4.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 45th highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for James Cook III is 4.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 5 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.

James Cook III's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Ja'Kobi Lane has been on the field for 54 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 15 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 9 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 1 of its 8 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 14 targets have averaged 10.6 air yards.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 4 of 5 targets for 40 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 3 of 5 targets for 25 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 1 of 1 target for 13 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, James Cook III has taken 54 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 35 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 7 third down targets, had 2 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 2 two minute targets.

His 3 targets have averaged 2.7 air yards.

In Week 8 against BAL he carried 21 times for 80 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 21 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

Ja'Kobi Lane is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

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.

Side by side

Ja'Kobi Lane 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

Ja'Kobi Lane is off in Week 13 and James Cook III in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

James Cook III is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

James Cook III has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.