Should I start Josh Downs or Mark Andrews in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Josh Downs, and the board ranks him 144th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Mark Andrews, and the board ranks him 146th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Josh Downs is 1.8 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.

Mark Andrews's market-based projection is 5.6 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 92nd highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Josh Downs has been on the field for 81 percent of IND snaps, drawn 20 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 16 of the offence's 64 third down targets, had 0 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 51 targets have averaged 10.4 air yards.

In Week 6 against TEN he carried 1 time for 7 yards, caught 4 of 8 targets for 40 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against MIN he caught 2 of 4 targets for 18 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against JAX he caught 4 of 5 targets for 23 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 8, Mark Andrews has been on the field for 64 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 18 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 17 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 2 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 47 two minute targets.

His 41 targets have averaged 6.6 air yards.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 1 of 3 targets for 4 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 3 of 4 targets for 23 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 3 of 4 targets for 14 yards and did not score.

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 5-6 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 Mark Andrews played 17 games and scored 131.0 PPR points, 7.7 a game, finishing TE16.

He caught 48 of 70 targets for 422 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 14 red zone targets.

That came to 4.1 targets a game, a 69 percent catch rate and 8.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 62 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Mark Andrews was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Josh Downs scored 8.5 PPR points a game and Mark Andrews 7.7, 0.8 a game between them.

Josh Downs finished WR44 and Mark Andrews TE16, which are two different ladders.

Josh Downs is a wide receiver and Mark Andrews a tight end, 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

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