Start Josh Cuevas or Davis Allen? Week 9

Our Week 9 call

Start Josh Cuevas over Davis Allen in Week 9.

Market-based projections have Josh Cuevas at 2.7 points and Davis Allen at 2.3, a gap of 0.4. That is inside the noise of a single catch, so treat it as close to a coin flip. No player market is posted for Davis Allen this week yet, so his 2.3 is the average of his market-based projections in Weeks 6 and 7 (2.5 and 2.1); the call is rebuilt when his market posts.

What the market projects

Player markets imply 2.7 fantasy points for Josh Cuevas, with 100 percent of the markets a TE needs posted.

The market-based projection for Josh Cuevas is 9 receiving yards, 1-2 receptions and 0.1 touchdowns (5, 5 and 10 market sources).

No Week 9 player market is posted for Davis Allen yet. His market-based projections were 2.5 and 2.1 points in Weeks 6 and 7, an average of 2.3, which stands in until his Week 9 market posts.

That puts Josh Cuevas 0.4 points ahead of Davis Allen on these projections.

Week 9 matchups

Josh Cuevas and BAL host JAX on Thursday at 8:15 PM ET.

JAX allowed 11.0 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 7 games, the 8th fewest in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 32 yards and 0.6 touchdowns a game against JAX.

Davis Allen and LAR visit WAS on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.

WAS allowed 20.7 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 7 games, the 2nd most in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 75 yards and 1.1 touchdowns a game against WAS.

By points allowed to the position, Davis Allen has the softer matchup.

Injury status

Josh Cuevas is not on the injury report.

Davis Allen is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 9

Through Week 8, Josh Cuevas played 23 percent of BAL snaps, drew 6 percent of the targets, earned 4 percent of the air yards and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

Josh Cuevas, Week 5 against ATL: 19 of 76 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 26 yards.

Josh Cuevas, Week 6 against CLE: 23 of 57 snaps, 5 targets and 4 catches for 44 yards, 1 touchdown.

Josh Cuevas, Week 7 against CIN: 15 of 67 snaps, 3 targets and 2 catches for 35 yards.

Josh Cuevas, Week 8 against BUF: 13 of 51 snaps, 2 targets and 1 catch for 15 yards.

Through Week 8, Davis Allen played 49 percent of LAR snaps, drew 5 percent of the targets, earned 4 percent of the air yards and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

Davis Allen, Week 5 against BUF: 41 of 82 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 24 yards.

Davis Allen, Week 6 against ARI: 18 of 58 snaps, 1 carry for 0 yards, 0 targets and 0 catches for 0 yards.

Davis Allen, Week 7 against LV: 50 of 72 snaps, 5 targets and 4 catches for 20 yards, 2 touchdowns.

Davis Allen, Week 8 against LAC: 40 of 54 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 8 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Davis Allen played 17 games for LAR and scored 62.8 PPR points, 3.7 a game, finishing TE44.

He caught 24 of 33 targets for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets and 71 air yards.

He was on the field for 50 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

Their other Week 9 calls

• Start Brevyn Spann-Ford over Josh Cuevas.
• Start Dawson Knox over Josh Cuevas.
• Start Josh Cuevas over Jonnu Smith.
• Start Nate Boerkircher over Davis Allen.