Darnell Washington · Mason Taylor · 2026 week 9

Darnell Washington or Mason Taylor?

Wondering who you should start this week — Darnell Washington or Mason Taylor? The start/sit call and the numbers behind it are below, plus who wins a straight-up trade. Rebuilt nightly.

Start Mason Taylor — barelyThis one is a coin flip — the projections are within 0.8 points. The matchup leans Mason Taylor (KC allow the 6th-most TE points), but you can defend either call.

Player	Wk 9	Proj (PPR)	Matchup	Form L3	Trade value	Status
Darnell Washington	@ CIN	6.7	10th	10.8	–	healthy
Mason Taylor START	@ KC	7.5	6th · soft	12.5	–	Questionable

TEs vs CIN recently: Greg Dulcich 5.7 pts (W5) · Josh Cuevas 3.5 pts (W7) · Gunnar Helm 9.6 pts (W8).

TEs vs KC recently: Charlie Kolar 2 pts (W6) · AJ Barner 4.6 pts (W7) · Nate Adkins 6.4 pts (W8).

🎓 The coach's read

Projections are 0.8 apart — too close to call on projection alone.
Darnell Washington faces CIN, 10th most generous to TEs.
Mason Taylor faces KC, 6th most generous to TEs.
Mason Taylor is flagged WATCH.

Who wins a straight-up trade?

Their trade values are effectively even — a one-for-one is a fair swap on the numbers.

Open in Start/Sit (any scoring) Open in the Trade Analyzer

More TE decisions

Darnell Washington or Eli Raridon?Darnell Washington or Gunnar Helm?Darnell Washington or Elijah Higgins?Mason Taylor or Elijah Higgins?Mason Taylor or Noah Fant?

All numbers are the 2026 season, refreshed nightly.