Should I start Joe Burrow or Rashod Bateman in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Joe Burrow, and the board ranks him 149th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rashod Bateman, and the board ranks him 150th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Joe Burrow is 0.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 0 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

The market-based projection for Rashod Bateman is 1.3 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.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Joe Burrow has been on the field for 99 percent of CIN snaps, dropped back 236 times and thrown 7.2 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 42 of 236 dropbacks and scrambled 7 times.

In Week 4 against JAX he completed 39 of 54 passes for 428 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 3 times for 6 yards.

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.

Through Week 7, Rashod Bateman has been on the field for 70 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 56 third down targets, had 1 of its 25 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 26 targets have averaged 14.0 air yards.

In Week 5 against ATL he caught 5 of 6 targets for 62 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 2 of 4 targets for 33 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 Rashod Bateman played 13 games and scored 55.4 PPR points, 4.3 a game, finishing WR102.

He caught 19 of 38 targets for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 2.9 targets a game, a 50 percent catch rate and 11.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 69 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rashod Bateman was available for 5 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Joe Burrow scored 17.4 PPR points a game and Rashod Bateman 4.3, 13.2 a game between them.

Joe Burrow finished QB29 and Rashod Bateman WR102, which are two different ladders.

Joe Burrow is a quarterback and Rashod Bateman 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 Rashod Bateman in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.