Should I start Joe Burrow or Ladd McConkey in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Joe Burrow, and the board ranks him 25th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Ladd McConkey, and the board ranks him 27th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 14; 2QB: ADP 35.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Joe Burrow is 23.0 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 13 market sources. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Ladd McConkey's market-based projection is 10.2 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 5 market sources. That is the 35th highest figure of the 213 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Joe Burrow has been on the field for 99 percent of CIN snaps, dropped back 289 times and thrown 7.6 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 51 of 289 dropbacks and scrambled 9 times.

In Week 5 against MIA he completed 23 of 32 passes for 190 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 12 yards.

In Week 7 against BAL he completed 22 of 30 passes for 292 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 12 yards.

In Week 8 against TEN he completed 38 of 48 passes for 462 yards, threw 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions and ran 3 times for 10 yards.

Through Week 8, Ladd McConkey has been on the field for 53 percent of LAC snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 10 of the offence's 61 third down targets, had 0 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 22 two minute targets.

His 24 targets have averaged 12.4 air yards.

In Week 4 against SEA he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against KC he caught 1 of 1 target for 17 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against LAR he caught 4 of 6 targets for 86 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Joe Burrow played 8 games and scored 139.5 PPR points, 17.4 a game, finishing QB29.

He threw for 1809 yards on 259 attempts with 17 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and ran for 41 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 32.4 attempts a game at 7.0 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 86 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Ladd McConkey played 16 games and scored 180.9 PPR points, 11.3 a game, finishing WR30.

He caught 66 of 106 targets for 789 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 14 red zone targets.

That came to 6.6 targets a game, a 62 percent catch rate and 12.0 yards a catch.

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

Ladd McConkey was available for 8 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Joe Burrow scored 17.4 PPR points a game and Ladd McConkey 11.3, 6.1 a game between them.

Joe Burrow finished QB29 and Ladd McConkey WR30, which are two different ladders.

Joe Burrow is a quarterback and Ladd McConkey a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Joe Burrow is off in Week 6 and Ladd McConkey in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Joe Burrow has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.