Bryce Young or Sam Darnold: who should I start in Week 3?
Both players' season price from the sportsbooks, their usage this season and their last full season's numbers, with the draft market's own figures wherever it still has them.
Updated Sep 25, 2026 at 4:36 AM ET
Neither is in the consensus draft sample any more, and the books have not posted a whole price on Sam Darnold, so there is no current market order to give between these two. What follows is what each of them has already done.
More fantasy football tools and rankings, all priced from the same board.
QB13 · CAR · bye 5
2025 vs pass yds line 6-10
- Books price
- 16.6 pts a game
- Draft pick
- no consensus
QB26 · SEA · bye 11
2025 vs pass yds line 9-8
- Overall rank
- 131
- Draft pick
- no consensus
- Tier
- 5
The gap
- Pick differencenot comparable without a consensus on both
- Board size227 draftable players
Consensus average draft position has stopped updating on these two, so the figures that depend on it are left out rather than printed stale. The verdict line above restates the sportsbooks' price and nothing else.
Where the draft room stands
Drafters have formed no consensus on Bryce Young: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 93rd overall on the rest of his evidence.
In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 91.
Drafters have formed no consensus on Sam Darnold: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 131st overall on the rest of his evidence.
In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 62.
What the sportsbooks price
The player markets price Bryce Young at 16.6 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 16 books. That is the 23rd highest figure of the 175 players the books price.
The books have Sam Darnold at 14.9 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 11 books. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.
Sam Darnold's price is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.
This season so far
Through Week 2, Bryce Young has been on the field for 92 percent of CAR snaps, dropped back 80 times and thrown 9.2 air yards an attempt.
He has been sacked or hit on 11 of 80 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.
In Week 1 against CHI he completed 23 of 37 passes for 361 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 10 yards.
In Week 2 against ATL he completed 23 of 36 passes for 287 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 6 yards.
Through Week 1, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 10 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 3 times and thrown 7.5 air yards an attempt.
He has been sacked or hit on 1 of 3 dropbacks.
In Week 1 against NE he completed 1 of 2 passes for 13 yards and threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Their 2025 seasons
In 2025 Bryce Young played 16 games and scored 229.0 PPR points, 14.3 a game, finishing QB19.
He threw for 3011 yards on 478 attempts with 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and ran for 216 yards and 2 touchdowns.
That came to 29.9 attempts a game at 6.3 yards an attempt.
He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.
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 8.5 yards an attempt.
He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.
Sam Darnold was available for 1 game more.
Head to head
In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Bryce Young 14.3, 0.4 a game between them.
Bryce Young finished QB19 that year and Sam Darnold QB13.
Bryce Young had 1 more pass attempts than Sam Darnold, 478 to 477.
Sam Darnold had 1037 more passing yards than Bryce Young, 4048 to 3011.
This season Bryce Young holds the bigger snap share, 92 percent against 10 percent.
Their target share this season is the same, 0 percent each.
Byes and availability
Bryce Young is off in Week 5 and Sam Darnold in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.
What would change the answer
Sam Darnold is only part priced, so the books' half of this page is whole for only one of them.
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