Start Brenton Strange or AJ Barner? Week 9

Our Week 9 call

Start Brenton Strange over AJ Barner in Week 9.

Market-based projections have Brenton Strange at 8.9 points and AJ Barner at 7.4, a gap of 1.5. No player market is posted for AJ Barner this week yet, so his 7.4 is the average of his market-based projections in Weeks 6, 7 and 8 (7.0, 7.0 and 8.2); the call is rebuilt when his market posts.

What the market projects

Player markets imply 8.9 fantasy points for Brenton Strange, with 100 percent of the markets a TE needs posted.

The market-based projection for Brenton Strange is 35 receiving yards, 3-4 receptions and 0.3 touchdowns (12, 11 and 11 market sources).

No Week 9 player market is posted for AJ Barner yet. His market-based projections were 7.0, 7.0 and 8.2 points in Weeks 6, 7 and 8, an average of 7.4, which stands in until his Week 9 market posts.

That puts Brenton Strange 1.5 points ahead of AJ Barner on these projections.

Week 9 matchups

Brenton Strange and JAX visit BAL on Thursday at 8:15 PM ET.

BAL allowed 12.3 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 7 games, the 13th fewest in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 39 yards and 0.7 touchdowns a game against BAL.

AJ Barner and SEA host ARI on Sunday at 4:25 PM ET.

ARI allowed 16.6 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 7 games, the 7th most in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 60 yards and 0.7 touchdowns a game against ARI.

By points allowed to the position, AJ Barner has the softer matchup.

Injury status

Brenton Strange is not on the injury report.

AJ Barner is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 9

Through Week 8, Brenton Strange played 79 percent of JAX snaps, drew 18 percent of the targets, earned 16 percent of the air yards and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

Brenton Strange, Week 4 against CIN: 53 of 61 snaps, 8 targets and 7 catches for 95 yards.

Brenton Strange, Week 5 against PHI: 58 of 72 snaps, 8 targets and 7 catches for 68 yards.

Brenton Strange, Week 6 against HOU: 54 of 71 snaps, 7 targets and 5 catches for 44 yards.

Brenton Strange, Week 8 against IND: 2 targets and 2 catches for 55 yards.

Through Week 7, AJ Barner played 88 percent of SEA snaps, drew 13 percent of the targets, earned 4 percent of the air yards and had 13 percent of the red zone chances.

AJ Barner, Week 4 against LAC: 54 of 60 snaps, 3 targets and 1 catch for 12 yards.

AJ Barner, Week 5 against SF: 60 of 63 snaps, 5 targets and 3 catches for 20 yards.

AJ Barner, Week 6 against DEN: 79 of 85 snaps, 4 targets and 3 catches for 16 yards.

AJ Barner, Week 7 against KC: 55 of 69 snaps, 3 carries for 4 yards, 5 targets and 4 catches for 42 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Brenton Strange played 12 games for JAX and scored 118.0 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing TE23.

He caught 46 of 60 targets for 540 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 9 red zone targets and 293 air yards.

He was on the field for 76 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

In 2025, AJ Barner played 17 games for SEA and scored 147.3 PPR points, 8.7 a game, finishing TE14.

He caught 52 of 68 targets for 519 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 12 red zone targets and 248 air yards.

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

Their other Week 9 calls

• Start Brenton Strange over Cade Otton.
• Start Brenton Strange over Chig Okonkwo.
• Start Colston Loveland over Brenton Strange.
• Start Cade Otton over AJ Barner.
• Start AJ Barner over Charlie Kolar.
• Start Chig Okonkwo over AJ Barner.