Should I start Rashod Bateman or Jonathan Taylor in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rashod Bateman, and the board ranks him 67th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jonathan Taylor, and the board ranks him 71st overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 4.

The market-based projections

Rashod Bateman's market-based projection is 4.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 45th highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Jonathan Taylor is 4.6 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a 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, 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 6 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 1 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 47 two minute targets.

His 29 targets have averaged 13.8 air yards.

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.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 1 of 3 targets for 22 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Jonathan Taylor has been on the field for 80 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.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

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.

Jonathan Taylor was available for 4 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor scored 21.3 PPR points a game and Rashod Bateman 4.3, 17.1 a game between them.

Rashod Bateman finished WR102 and Jonathan Taylor RB4, which are two different ladders.

Rashod Bateman is a wide receiver and Jonathan Taylor a running back, 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.