Start Nate Boerkircher or Noah Fant? Week 9

Our Week 9 call

Start Noah Fant over Nate Boerkircher in Week 9.

Market-based projections have Noah Fant at 3.4 points and Nate Boerkircher at 2.3, a gap of 1.1. 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 2.3 fantasy points for Nate Boerkircher, with 100 percent of the markets a TE needs posted.

The market-based projection for Nate Boerkircher is 8 receiving yards, 0-1 receptions and 0.2 touchdowns (8, 7 and 11 market sources).

That puts Noah Fant 1.1 points ahead of Nate Boerkircher 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.

Nate Boerkircher and JAX visit BAL on Thursday at 8:15 PM ET.

BAL allowed 13.5 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 8 games, the 15th fewest in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 47 yards and 0.8 touchdowns a game against BAL.

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

Injury status

Noah Fant is not on the injury report.

Nate Boerkircher 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, Nate Boerkircher played 48 percent of JAX snaps, drew 5 percent of the targets, earned 4 percent of the air yards and had 3 percent of the red zone chances.

Nate Boerkircher, Week 4 against CIN: 21 of 61 snaps, 2 targets and 1 catch for 15 yards.

Nate Boerkircher, Week 5 against PHI: 35 of 72 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 20 yards.

Nate Boerkircher, Week 6 against HOU: 39 of 71 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 8 yards, 1 touchdown.

Nate Boerkircher, Week 8 against IND: 26 of 54 snaps, 1 target and 1 catch for 31 yards, 1 touchdown.

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 Josh Cuevas.
• Start Nate Boerkircher over Austin Hooper.
• Start Brevyn Spann-Ford over Nate Boerkircher.
• Start Nate Boerkircher over Davis Allen.