Should I start Ja'Kobi Lane or John Metchie 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 John Metchie III, and the board ranks him 188th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Ja'Kobi Lane's market-based projection is 3.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 47th highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for John Metchie III is 0.8 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

John Metchie 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, John Metchie III has been on the field for 46 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 13 third down targets, had 0 of its 2 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 5 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 5.0 air yards.

In Week 7 against TB he caught 2 of 4 targets for 20 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against GB he caught 3 of 3 targets for 14 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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

In 2025 John Metchie III played 16 games and scored 71.9 PPR points, 4.5 a game, finishing WR87.

He caught 33 of 48 targets for 274 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 5 red zone targets.

That came to 3.0 targets a game, a 69 percent catch rate and 8.3 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 43 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Head to head

This season Ja'Kobi Lane holds the bigger snap share, 54 percent against 46 percent.

This season Ja'Kobi Lane holds the bigger target share, 12 percent against 11 percent.

Byes and availability

Ja'Kobi Lane is off in Week 13 and John Metchie III in Week 5, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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