Should I start Christian McCaffrey or Bucky Irving in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Christian McCaffrey, and the board ranks him 5th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 7.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Bucky Irving, and the board ranks him 33rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Christian McCaffrey is 20.7 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 11 market sources. That is 70 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Bucky Irving's market-based projection is 13.8 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 59th highest figure of the 225 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 7, Christian McCaffrey has been on the field for 69 percent of SF snaps, taken 46 percent of the carries, drawn 20 percent of the targets and had 36 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 9 of the offence's 50 third down targets, had 12 of its 24 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 42 targets have averaged 2.5 air yards.

In Week 5 against SEA he carried 11 times for 68 yards, caught 3 of 3 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against WAS he carried 16 times for 64 yards, caught 9 of 10 targets for 53 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 7 against ATL he carried 7 times for 39 yards, caught 6 of 7 targets for 61 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 8, Bucky Irving has been on the field for 63 percent of TB snaps, taken 57 percent of the carries, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 45 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 6 of its 14 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 23 targets have come 2.0 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against PIT he carried 19 times for 46 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 3 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CAR he carried 24 times for 106 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 4 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 8 against ATL he carried 27 times for 170 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Christian McCaffrey played 17 games and scored 416.6 PPR points, 24.5 a game, finishing RB1.

He carried 311 times for 1202 yards and 10 touchdowns, and caught 102 of 129 targets for 924 more yards.

That came to 18.3 carries a game at 3.9 yards a carry and 6.0 catches a game.

He was on the field for 83 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Bucky Irving played 10 games and scored 138.5 PPR points, 13.9 a game, finishing RB34.

He carried 173 times for 588 yards and 1 touchdown, and caught 30 of 35 targets for 277 more yards.

That came to 17.3 carries a game at 3.4 yards a carry and 3.0 catches a game.

He was on the field for 62 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Christian McCaffrey was available for 7 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Christian McCaffrey scored 24.5 PPR points a game and Bucky Irving 13.9, 10.7 a game between them.

Christian McCaffrey finished RB1 that year and Bucky Irving RB34.

Christian McCaffrey had 138 more carries than Bucky Irving, 311 to 173.

Christian McCaffrey had 72 more catches than Bucky Irving, 102 to 30.

This season Christian McCaffrey holds the bigger snap share, 69 percent against 63 percent.

This season Bucky Irving holds the bigger share of the carries, 57 percent against 46 percent.

Byes and availability

Christian McCaffrey is off in Week 8 and Bucky Irving in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

Christian McCaffrey is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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