Start Zay Flowers or Josh Downs? Week 9

Our Week 9 call

Start Zay Flowers over Josh Downs in Week 9.

Market-based projections have Zay Flowers at 9.5 points and Josh Downs at 10.3, a gap of 0.8. That is inside the noise of a single catch, so treat it as close to a coin flip. Zay Flowers still gets the call because it also weighs where drafters take each player, ADP 23 against 96, and that outweighs a gap this size. No player market is posted for Josh Downs this week yet, so his 10.3 is the average of his market-based projections in Weeks 6, 7 and 8 (12.3, 10.9 and 7.8); the call is rebuilt when his market posts.

What the market projects

No Week 9 player market is posted for Josh Downs yet. His market-based projections were 12.3, 10.9 and 7.8 points in Weeks 6, 7 and 8, an average of 10.3, which stands in until his Week 9 market posts.

Player markets imply 9.5 fantasy points for Zay Flowers, with 100 percent of the markets a WR needs posted.

The market-based projection for Zay Flowers is 45 receiving yards, 3-4 receptions and 0.3 touchdowns (11, 9 and 11 market sources).

That puts Josh Downs 0.8 points ahead of Zay Flowers on these projections.

Week 9 matchups

Josh Downs and IND host DAL on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.

DAL allowed 35.5 fantasy points a game to WRs this season over 7 games, the 10th most in the league.

Receivers caught passes for 163 yards and a touchdown a game against DAL.

Zay Flowers and BAL host JAX on Thursday at 8:15 PM ET.

JAX allowed 38.0 fantasy points a game to WRs this season over 6 games, the 4th most in the league.

Receivers caught passes for 210 yards and 0-1 touchdowns a game against JAX.

By points allowed to the position, Zay Flowers has the softer matchup.

Injury status

Josh Downs is not on the injury report.

Zay Flowers is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 9

Through Week 8, Josh Downs played 82 percent of IND snaps, drew 20 percent of the targets, earned 26 percent of the air yards and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

Josh Downs, Week 5 against PIT: 60 of 71 snaps, 6 targets and 3 catches for 47 yards.

Josh Downs, Week 6 against TEN: 71 of 83 snaps, 1 carry for 7 yards, 8 targets and 4 catches for 40 yards.

Josh Downs, Week 7 against MIN: 52 of 58 snaps, 4 targets and 2 catches for 18 yards.

Josh Downs, Week 8 against JAX: 5 targets and 4 catches for 23 yards, 1 touchdown.

Through Week 8, Zay Flowers played 65 percent of BAL snaps, drew 30 percent of the targets, earned 33 percent of the air yards and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

Zay Flowers, Week 5 against ATL: 62 of 76 snaps, 1 carry for 13 yards, 9 targets and 8 catches for 53 yards.

Zay Flowers, Week 6 against CLE: 50 of 57 snaps, 1 carry for 1 yards, 11 targets and 6 catches for 66 yards.

Zay Flowers, Week 7 against CIN: 57 of 67 snaps, 11 targets and 8 catches for 137 yards, 1 touchdown.

Zay Flowers, Week 8 against BUF: 5 targets and 0 catches for 0 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Josh Downs played 16 games for IND and scored 136.4 PPR points, 8.5 a game, finishing WR44.

He caught 58 of 88 targets for 566 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 14 red zone targets and 422 air yards.

He was on the field for 58 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

In 2025, Zay Flowers played 17 games for BAL 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 and 753 air yards.

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

Their other Week 9 calls

• Start Chris Godwin Jr. over Josh Downs.
• Start Josh Downs over Denzel Boston.
• Start Josh Downs over Devaughn Vele.
• Start Zay Flowers over Chris Godwin Jr..
• Start Zay Flowers over Courtland Sutton.
• Start Zay Flowers over Darius Cooper.