Josh Downs or Kirk Cousins: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Josh Downs: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 32nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Kirk Cousins: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 87th overall on the rest of his evidence.

What the player markets price

The player markets price Josh Downs at 11.2 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 4 market sources. That is the 52nd highest figure of the 139 players the market prices.

The market has Kirk Cousins at 16.8 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 5 market sources. That is 90 percent of what a quarterback's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Kirk Cousins's price is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 5

Through Week 5, Josh Downs has been on the field for 80 percent of IND snaps, drawn 20 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 12 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 34 targets have averaged 11.1 air yards.

In Week 3 against HOU he caught 5 of 11 targets for 77 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against WAS he caught 3 of 4 targets for 16 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against PIT he caught 3 of 6 targets for 47 yards and did not score.

Through Week 5, Kirk Cousins has been on the field for 97 percent of LV snaps, dropped back 180 times and thrown 8.3 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 34 of 180 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.

In Week 3 against NO he completed 22 of 33 passes for 248 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

In Week 4 against KC he completed 31 of 49 passes for 365 yards and threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

In Week 5 against NE he completed 19 of 28 passes for 243 yards and threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Josh Downs played 16 games and scored 136.4 PPR points, 8.5 a game, finishing WR44.

He caught 58 of 88 targets for 566 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 14 red zone targets.

That came to 5.5 targets a game, a 66 percent catch rate and 9.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 58 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.

Josh Downs was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Kirk Cousins scored 10.9 PPR points a game and Josh Downs 8.5, 2.3 a game between them.

Josh Downs finished WR44 and Kirk Cousins QB35, which are two different ladders.

Josh Downs is a wide receiver and Kirk Cousins a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Josh Downs is off in Week 13. No bye is listed for Kirk Cousins.

What would change the answer

Kirk Cousins is only part priced, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.