Should I start Mike Gesicki or Makai Lemon in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Mike Gesicki, and the board ranks him 158th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Makai Lemon, and the board ranks him 162nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Mike Gesicki is 1.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 3 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a tight end's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

The market-based projection for Makai Lemon is 1.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 11 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 5, Mike Gesicki has been on the field for 46 percent of CIN snaps, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 46 third down targets, had 3 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 8 of its 33 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have averaged 10.4 air yards.

In Week 3 against PIT he caught 3 of 3 targets for 37 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 4 against JAX he caught 3 of 5 targets for 40 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against MIA he caught 1 of 2 targets for 4 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 6, Makai Lemon has been on the field for 72 percent of PHI snaps, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 0 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 58 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 29 two minute targets.

His 28 targets have averaged 5.2 air yards.

In Week 4 against LAR he caught 3 of 6 targets for 27 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against JAX he caught 5 of 7 targets for 43 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against CAR he caught 3 of 6 targets for 19 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Mike Gesicki played 13 games and scored 70.7 PPR points, 5.4 a game, finishing TE41.

He caught 28 of 42 targets for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets.

That came to 3.2 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 11.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 38 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Makai Lemon is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

Side by side

Mike Gesicki is a tight end and Makai Lemon a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Mike Gesicki is off in Week 6 and Makai Lemon in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

Makai Lemon is listed as questionable on the injury report.