Should I start Austin Ekeler or Samaje Perine 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 Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 192nd 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 Samaje Perine is 1.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 3 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Samaje Perine'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, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 36 percent of CIN snaps, taken 27 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 68 third down targets, had 1 of its 20 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 47 two minute targets.

His 11 targets have averaged 1.3 air yards.

In Week 7 against BAL he carried 4 times for 16 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against TEN he carried 4 times for 10 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 9 yards and did not score.

In Week 9 against ATL he carried 11 times for 43 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 Samaje Perine played 15 games and scored 77.9 PPR points, 5.2 a game, finishing RB57.

He carried 84 times for 382 yards and 3 touchdowns, and caught 17 of 21 targets for 87 more yards.

That came to 5.6 carries a game at 5 yards a carry and 1.1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 34 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Samaje Perine was available for 13 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Austin Ekeler scored 6.6 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 1.4 a game between them.

Austin Ekeler finished RB103 that year and Samaje Perine RB57.

Samaje Perine had 70 more carries than Austin Ekeler, 84 to 14.

Samaje Perine had 12 more catches than Austin Ekeler, 17 to 5.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger snap share, 36 percent against 25 percent.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger share of the carries, 27 percent against 21 percent.

Byes and availability

Austin Ekeler is off in Week 7 and Samaje Perine in Week 6, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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