Should I start AJ Barner or Sione Vaki in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

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

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sione Vaki, and the board ranks him 114th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

AJ Barner's market-based projection is 7.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 96th highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Sione Vaki is 3.8 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 8 market sources. That is 90 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Sione Vaki's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, AJ Barner has been on the field for 88 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 14 percent of the targets and had 12 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 5 of the offence's 70 third down targets, had 3 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 34 targets have averaged 2.1 air yards.

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

In Week 7 against KC he carried 3 times for 4 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 42 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against CHI he caught 2 of 5 targets for 23 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Sione Vaki has been on the field for 24 percent of DET snaps, taken 14 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 1 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 0 of its 22 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 6 targets have averaged 1.7 air yards.

In Week 5 against ARI he carried 6 times for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against GB he carried 1 time for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against MIN he carried 11 times for 65 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 5 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 Sione Vaki played 11 games and scored 0.4 PPR points, 0.0 a game, finishing RB143.

He carried 1 time for 4 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 0 of 0 targets for 0 more yards.

That came to 0.1 carries a game at 4.0 yards a carry.

He was on the field for 0 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

AJ Barner was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 AJ Barner scored 8.7 PPR points a game and Sione Vaki 0.0, 8.6 a game between them.

AJ Barner finished TE14 and Sione Vaki RB143, which are two different ladders.

AJ Barner is a tight end and Sione Vaki a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

AJ Barner is off in Week 11. No bye is listed for Sione Vaki.

What would change the answer

Sione Vaki has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.