Should I start Zay Flowers or Ladd McConkey in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Zay Flowers, and the board ranks him 29th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Ladd McConkey, and the board ranks him 153rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 14; 2QB: ADP 35.

The market-based projections

Zay Flowers's market-based projection is 9.5 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 26th highest figure of the 212 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Ladd McConkey 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.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Zay Flowers has been on the field for 67 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 30 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 15 of the offence's 59 third down targets, had 0 of its 25 chances inside the five and seen 10 of its 38 two minute targets.

His 58 targets have averaged 8.2 air yards.

In Week 6 against CLE he carried 1 time for 1 yards, caught 6 of 11 targets for 66 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 8 of 11 targets for 137 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against BUF he caught 0 of 5 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Ladd McConkey has been on the field for 53 percent of LAC snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 10 of the offence's 61 third down targets, had 0 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 22 two minute targets.

His 24 targets have averaged 12.4 air yards.

In Week 4 against SEA he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against KC he caught 1 of 1 target for 17 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against LAR he caught 4 of 6 targets for 86 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Zay Flowers played 17 games and scored 243.3 PPR points, 14.3 a game, finishing WR7.

He caught 86 of 118 targets for 1211 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 10 red zone targets.

That came to 6.9 targets a game, a 73 percent catch rate and 14.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 86 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Ladd McConkey played 16 games and scored 180.9 PPR points, 11.3 a game, finishing WR30.

He caught 66 of 106 targets for 789 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 14 red zone targets.

That came to 6.6 targets a game, a 62 percent catch rate and 12.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Zay Flowers was available for 1 game more.

Head to head

In 2025 Zay Flowers scored 14.3 PPR points a game and Ladd McConkey 11.3, 3.0 a game between them.

Zay Flowers finished WR7 that year and Ladd McConkey WR30.

Zay Flowers had 12 more targets than Ladd McConkey, 118 to 106.

Zay Flowers had 422 more receiving yards than Ladd McConkey, 1211 to 789.

This season Zay Flowers holds the bigger snap share, 67 percent against 53 percent.

This season Zay Flowers holds the bigger target share, 30 percent against 13 percent.

Byes and availability

Zay Flowers is off in Week 13 and Ladd McConkey in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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