Should I start Jaylen Waddle or Luther Burden III in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jaylen Waddle, and the board ranks him 26th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 15; 2QB: ADP 36.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Luther Burden III, and the board ranks him 75th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 39.

The market-based projections

Jaylen Waddle's market-based projection is 11.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 24th highest figure of the 211 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Luther Burden III is 3.1 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.

Luther Burden 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, Jaylen Waddle has been on the field for 63 percent of DEN snaps, drawn 23 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 16 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 1 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 51 targets have averaged 9.8 air yards.

In Week 6 against SEA he caught 4 of 7 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against ARI he caught 4 of 7 targets for 48 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against KC he caught 3 of 6 targets for 39 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 8, Luther Burden III has been on the field for 61 percent of CHI snaps, drawn 20 percent of the targets and had 14 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 19 third down targets, had 1 of its 9 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 6 two minute targets.

His 13 targets have averaged 6.2 air yards.

In Week 7 against NE he carried 1 time for 7 yards, caught 4 of 4 targets for 130 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against SEA he caught 7 of 9 targets for 56 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Jaylen Waddle played 16 games and scored 194.1 PPR points, 12.1 a game, finishing WR24.

He caught 64 of 100 targets for 910 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 11 red zone targets.

That came to 6.3 targets a game, a 64 percent catch rate and 14.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Luther Burden III played 15 games and scored 127.9 PPR points, 8.5 a game, finishing WR48.

He caught 47 of 60 targets for 652 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 4.0 targets a game, a 78 percent catch rate and 13.9 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 39 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jaylen Waddle was available for 1 game more.

Head to head

In 2025 Jaylen Waddle scored 12.1 PPR points a game and Luther Burden III 8.5, 3.6 a game between them.

Jaylen Waddle finished WR24 that year and Luther Burden III WR48.

Jaylen Waddle had 40 more targets than Luther Burden III, 100 to 60.

Jaylen Waddle had 258 more receiving yards than Luther Burden III, 910 to 652.

This season Jaylen Waddle holds the bigger snap share, 63 percent against 61 percent.

This season Jaylen Waddle holds the bigger target share, 23 percent against 20 percent.

Byes and availability

Both are off in Week 10, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

What would change the answer

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