Should I start Jaylen Waddle or Omar Cooper Jr. in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jaylen Waddle, and the board ranks him 90th overall on the rest of his evidence.

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

Live drafts hold no current pick on Omar Cooper Jr., and the board ranks him 94th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Jaylen Waddle is 2.2 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.

The market has Omar Cooper Jr. at 2.2 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Jaylen Waddle's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Jaylen Waddle has been on the field for 68 percent of DEN snaps, drawn 23 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 14 of the offence's 58 third down targets, had 0 of its 18 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 25 two minute targets.

His 45 targets have averaged 10.1 air yards.

In Week 5 against LAC he carried 1 time for 9 yards, caught 2 of 5 targets for 19 yards and did not score.

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.

Through Week 7, Omar Cooper Jr. has drawn 17 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 9 third down targets and had 1 of its 3 chances inside the five.

His 5 targets have averaged 10.2 air yards.

In Week 7 against MIA he caught 5 of 5 targets for 115 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.

Omar Cooper Jr. is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

Head to head

This season Jaylen Waddle holds the bigger target share, 23 percent against 17 percent.

Byes and availability

Jaylen Waddle is off in Week 10 and Omar Cooper Jr. in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.

Jaylen Waddle is listed as questionable on the injury report.