Dak Prescott 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.
QB9 · DAL · bye 14
2025 vs anytime td line 2-15
- Books price
- 18.0 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 Dak Prescott: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 78th overall on the rest of his evidence.
In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 14.
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 Dak Prescott at 18.0 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 17 books. That is the 15th 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, Dak Prescott has been on the field for 100 percent of DAL snaps, dropped back 72 times and thrown 8.5 air yards an attempt.
He has been sacked or hit on 9 of 72 dropbacks and scrambled 5 times.
In Week 1 against NYG he completed 22 of 34 passes for 175 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 14 yards.
In Week 2 against WAS he completed 26 of 31 passes for 279 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 4 times for 26 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 Dak Prescott played 17 games and scored 323.8 PPR points, 19.0 a game, finishing QB6.
He threw for 4552 yards on 600 attempts with 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and ran for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns.
That came to 35.3 attempts a game at 7.6 yards an attempt.
He was on the field for 98 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.
Both were available for 17 games that season.
Head to head
In 2025 Dak Prescott scored 19.0 PPR points a game and Sam Darnold 14.7, 4.4 a game between them.
Dak Prescott finished QB6 that year and Sam Darnold QB13.
Dak Prescott had 123 more pass attempts than Sam Darnold, 600 to 477.
Dak Prescott had 504 more passing yards than Sam Darnold, 4552 to 4048.
This season Dak Prescott holds the bigger snap share, 100 percent against 10 percent.
Their target share this season is the same, 0 percent each.
Byes and availability
Dak Prescott is off in Week 14 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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