Should I start Darren Waller or Dameon Pierce in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 131st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Dameon Pierce, and the board ranks him 132nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 6.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 117th highest figure of the 214 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Dameon Pierce is 3.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 12 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 6

Through Week 6, Darren Waller has been on the field for 46 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 40 third down targets, had 0 of its 11 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 29 two minute targets.

His 21 targets have averaged 8.8 air yards.

In Week 3 against CLE he caught 5 of 8 targets for 51 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DET he caught 3 of 6 targets for 36 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against PHI he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 yards and did not score.

Through Week 6, Dameon Pierce has been on the field for 87 percent of PHI snaps, taken 74 percent of the carries, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 43 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 25 third down targets, had 2 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 5 two minute targets.

His 10 targets have come 0.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 5 against JAX he carried 11 times for 14 yards, caught 2 of 5 targets for -2 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against CAR he carried 12 times for 35 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Darren Waller played 9 games and scored 88.7 PPR points, 9.9 a game, finishing TE33.

He caught 24 of 34 targets for 283 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 7 red zone targets.

That came to 3.8 targets a game, a 71 percent catch rate and 11.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 45 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Dameon Pierce played 5 games and scored 3.6 PPR points, 0.7 a game, finishing RB128.

He carried 14 times for 36 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 0 of 1 target for 0 more yards.

That came to 2.8 carries a game at 2.6 yards a carry.

He was on the field for 8 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Darren Waller was available for 4 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Darren Waller scored 9.9 PPR points a game and Dameon Pierce 0.7, 9.1 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Dameon Pierce RB128, which are two different ladders.

Darren Waller is a tight end and Dameon Pierce a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Darren Waller is off in Week 5 and Dameon Pierce in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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