Should I start Austin Ekeler or Dylan Sampson in Week 10?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Austin Ekeler, and the board ranks him 30th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Dylan Sampson, and the board ranks him 205th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Austin Ekeler's market-based projection is 6.5 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 26th highest figure of the 207 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Dylan Sampson is 1.2 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 9

Through Week 9, Austin Ekeler has been on the field for 25 percent of WAS snaps, taken 21 percent of the carries, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 42 third down targets, had 0 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 24 two minute targets.

His 8 targets have come 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against SF he carried 1 time for 3 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 4 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against PHI he carried 8 times for 36 yards and did not score.

In Week 9 against LAR he carried 8 times for 16 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 18 yards and did not score.

Through Week 9, Dylan Sampson has been on the field for 55 percent of CLE snaps, taken 20 percent of the carries, drawn 16 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 24 third down targets, had 0 of its 9 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 28 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have come 0.8 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 7 against TEN he carried 6 times for 45 yards, caught 3 of 3 targets for 32 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against PIT he carried 1 time for 7 yards, caught 6 of 8 targets for 62 yards and did not score.

In Week 9 against NO he carried 8 times for 21 yards, caught 3 of 6 targets for 27 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Austin Ekeler played 2 games and scored 13.1 PPR points, 6.6 a game, finishing RB103.

He carried 14 times for 43 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 5 of 7 targets for 38 more yards.

That came to 7.0 carries a game at 3.1 yards a carry and 2-3 catches a game.

He was on the field for 50 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Dylan Sampson played 15 games and scored 87.6 PPR points, 5.8 a game, finishing RB55.

He carried 65 times for 175 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 33 of 40 targets for 271 more yards.

That came to 4.3 carries a game at 2.7 yards a carry and 2.2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 25 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Dylan Sampson was available for 13 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Austin Ekeler scored 6.6 PPR points a game and Dylan Sampson 5.8, 0.7 a game between them.

Austin Ekeler finished RB103 that year and Dylan Sampson RB55.

Dylan Sampson had 51 more carries than Austin Ekeler, 65 to 14.

Dylan Sampson had 28 more catches than Austin Ekeler, 33 to 5.

This season Dylan Sampson holds the bigger snap share, 55 percent against 25 percent.

This season Austin Ekeler holds the bigger share of the carries, 21 percent against 20 percent.

Byes and availability

Austin Ekeler is off in Week 7 and Dylan Sampson in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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