Should I start Sam LaPorta or Brenton Strange in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam LaPorta, and the board ranks him 14th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Brenton Strange, and the board ranks him 103rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Sam LaPorta's market-based projection is 11.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 14th highest figure of the 198 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Brenton Strange is 2.1 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a tight end's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 7, Sam LaPorta has been on the field for 89 percent of DET snaps, drawn 18 percent of the targets and had 12 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 52 third down targets, had 2 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 39 targets have averaged 6.2 air yards.

In Week 4 against CAR he caught 8 of 13 targets for 84 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against ARI he caught 5 of 5 targets for 88 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against GB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 18 yards and did not score.

Through Week 6, Brenton Strange has been on the field for 79 percent of JAX snaps, drawn 19 percent of the targets and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 8 of the offence's 43 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 23 two minute targets.

His 33 targets have averaged 7.7 air yards.

In Week 4 against CIN he caught 7 of 8 targets for 95 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against PHI he caught 7 of 8 targets for 68 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against HOU he caught 5 of 7 targets for 44 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Sam LaPorta played 9 games and scored 106.9 PPR points, 11.9 a game, finishing TE27.

He caught 40 of 49 targets for 489 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 5.4 targets a game, a 82 percent catch rate and 12.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 90 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Brenton Strange played 12 games and scored 118.0 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing TE23.

He caught 46 of 60 targets for 540 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 9 red zone targets.

That came to 5.0 targets a game, a 77 percent catch rate and 11.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 76 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Brenton Strange was available for 3 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Sam LaPorta scored 11.9 PPR points a game and Brenton Strange 9.8, 2.0 a game between them.

Sam LaPorta finished TE27 that year and Brenton Strange TE23.

Brenton Strange had 11 more targets than Sam LaPorta, 60 to 49.

Brenton Strange had 51 more receiving yards than Sam LaPorta, 540 to 489.

This season Sam LaPorta holds the bigger snap share, 89 percent against 79 percent.

This season Brenton Strange holds the bigger target share, 19 percent against 18 percent.

Byes and availability

Sam LaPorta is off in Week 6 and Brenton Strange in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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