Should I start Jonathan Taylor or Kirk Cousins in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

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

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 4.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Kirk Cousins, and the board ranks him 108th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Jonathan Taylor is 5.3 PPR points a game off 1 market across 5 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Kirk Cousins's market-based projection is 15.6 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 33rd highest figure of the 220 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Jonathan Taylor has been on the field for 78 percent of IND snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 47 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 64 third down targets, had 15 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have come 1.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against TEN he carried 21 times for 94 yards, caught 2 of 4 targets for 57 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against MIN he carried 18 times for 95 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against JAX he carried 8 times for 23 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Kirk Cousins has been on the field for 98 percent of LV snaps, dropped back 296 times and thrown 8.1 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 49 of 296 dropbacks and scrambled 5 times.

In Week 6 against BUF he completed 23 of 41 passes for 313 yards and threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

In Week 7 against LAR he completed 26 of 44 passes for 295 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 6 yards.

In Week 8 against NYJ he completed 19 of 26 passes for 247 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 5 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor played 17 games and scored 362.3 PPR points, 21.3 a game, finishing RB4.

He carried 323 times for 1585 yards and 18 touchdowns, and caught 46 of 55 targets for 378 more yards.

That came to 19.0 carries a game at 4.9 yards a carry and 2.7 catches a game.

He was on the field for 84 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Kirk Cousins played 10 games and scored 108.5 PPR points, 10.9 a game, finishing QB35.

He threw for 1721 yards on 269 attempts with 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and ran for 7 yards and 1 touchdown.

That came to 26.9 attempts a game at 6.4 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 46 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jonathan Taylor was available for 7 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor scored 21.3 PPR points a game and Kirk Cousins 10.9, 10.5 a game between them.

Jonathan Taylor finished RB4 and Kirk Cousins QB35, which are two different ladders.

Jonathan Taylor is a running back and Kirk Cousins a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Both are off in Week 13, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

What would change the answer

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