Should I start Sam Darnold or AJ Barner in Week 7?

The market-based projections

Sam Darnold's market-based projection is 15.3 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 36th highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

AJ Barner's market-based projection is 6.8 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 90th highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam Darnold, and the board ranks him 111th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 26.

Live drafts hold no current pick on AJ Barner, and the board ranks him 113th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season through Week 6

Through Week 6, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 86 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 166 times and thrown 7.3 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 37 of 166 dropbacks and scrambled 5 times.

In Week 4 against LAC he completed 13 of 22 passes for 168 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 1 time for 8 yards.

In Week 5 against SF he completed 18 of 29 passes for 195 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

In Week 6 against DEN he completed 27 of 49 passes for 278 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and ran 2 times for 19 yards.

Through Week 6, AJ Barner has been on the field for 90 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 13 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 52 third down targets, had 3 of its 17 chances inside the five and seen 6 of its 32 two minute targets.

His 24 targets have averaged 2.5 air yards.

In Week 4 against LAC he caught 1 of 3 targets for 12 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against SF he caught 3 of 5 targets for 20 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against DEN he caught 3 of 4 targets for 16 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Sam Darnold played 17 games and scored 249.4 PPR points, 14.7 a game, finishing QB13.

He threw for 4048 yards on 477 attempts with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and ran for 95 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 28.1 attempts a game at 9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 AJ Barner played 17 games and scored 147.3 PPR points, 8.7 a game, finishing TE14.

He caught 52 of 68 targets for 519 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 12 red zone targets.

That came to 4.0 targets a game, a 76 percent catch rate and 10.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and AJ Barner 8.7, 6.0 a game between them.

Sam Darnold finished QB13 and AJ Barner TE14, which are two different ladders.

Sam Darnold is a quarterback and AJ Barner a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Both are off in Week 11, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

What would change the answer

8.4 points a game is the entire case. The market restates it every week, and a line that moves moves the order with it.

The draft market is the half that is missing: when live drafts hold these two again they can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the drafts rather than the market-based projection when they do.