Should I start C.J. Stroud or David Montgomery in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on C.J. Stroud, and the board ranks him 60th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 30.

Live drafts hold no current pick on David Montgomery, and the board ranks him 61st overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 33.

The market-based projections

C.J. Stroud's market-based projection is 17.3 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 4 market sources. That is the 5th highest figure of the 213 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for David Montgomery is 5.0 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.

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

This season so far

Through Week 7, C.J. Stroud has been on the field for 100 percent of HOU snaps, dropped back 266 times and thrown 9.3 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 35 of 266 dropbacks and scrambled 8 times.

In Week 5 against TEN he completed 26 of 34 passes for 261 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions and ran 4 times for 7 yards.

In Week 6 against JAX he completed 24 of 34 passes for 312 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

In Week 7 against NYG he completed 17 of 28 passes for 153 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 4 yards.

Through Week 5, David Montgomery has been on the field for 46 percent of HOU snaps, taken 45 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 28 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 3 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 3.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against IND he carried 11 times for 33 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 15 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DAL he carried 10 times for 24 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TEN he carried 5 times for 11 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 C.J. Stroud played 14 games and scored 216.5 PPR points, 15.5 a game, finishing QB21.

He threw for 3041 yards on 423 attempts with 19 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, and ran for 209 yards and 1 touchdown.

That came to 30.2 attempts a game at 7.2 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 93 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 David Montgomery played 17 games and scored 166.9 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing RB27.

He carried 158 times for 716 yards and 8 touchdowns, and caught 24 of 29 targets for 192 more yards.

That came to 9.3 carries a game at 5 yards a carry and 1.4 catches a game.

He was on the field for 37 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

David Montgomery was available for 3 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 C.J. Stroud scored 15.5 PPR points a game and David Montgomery 9.8, 5.6 a game between them.

C.J. Stroud finished QB21 and David Montgomery RB27, which are two different ladders.

C.J. Stroud is a quarterback and David Montgomery a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Both are off in Week 8, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

David Montgomery is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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