Start Josh Cuevas or Noah Fant? Week 9

Our Week 9 call

Start Noah Fant over Josh Cuevas in Week 9.

Market-based projections have Noah Fant at 3.4 points and Josh Cuevas at 2.7, a gap of 0.7. That is inside the noise of a single catch, so treat it as close to a coin flip. No player market is posted for Noah Fant this week yet, so his 3.4 is the average of his market-based projections in Weeks 6 and 7 (3.3 and 3.5); the call is rebuilt when his market posts.

What the market projects

No Week 9 player market is posted for Noah Fant yet. His market-based projections were 3.3 and 3.5 points in Weeks 6 and 7, an average of 3.4, which stands in until his Week 9 market posts.

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).

That puts Noah Fant 0.7 points ahead of Josh Cuevas on these projections.

Week 9 matchups

Noah Fant and NO host CLE on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.

CLE allowed 14.9 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 8 games, the 10th most in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 59 yards and 0-1 touchdowns a game against CLE.

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.

By points allowed to the position, Noah Fant has the softer matchup.

Injury status

Noah Fant is not on the injury report.

Josh Cuevas is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 9

Through Week 7, Noah Fant played 51 percent of NO snaps, drew 7 percent of the targets, earned 5 percent of the air yards and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

Noah Fant, Week 3 against LV: 42 of 74 snaps, 4 targets and 4 catches for 33 yards, 2 touchdowns.

Noah Fant, Week 5 against MIN: 30 of 45 snaps, 1 target and 1 catch for 7 yards.

Noah Fant, Week 6 against NYG: 42 of 72 snaps, 1 target and 0 catches for 0 yards.

Noah Fant, Week 7 against PIT: 26 of 57 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 11 yards.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Noah Fant played 15 games for CIN and scored 74.8 PPR points, 5.0 a game, finishing TE37.

He caught 34 of 41 targets for 288 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets and 114 air yards.

He was on the field for 39 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

Their other Week 9 calls

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