Should I start Dameon Pierce or Patrick Mahomes in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Dameon Pierce, and the board ranks him 90th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Patrick Mahomes, and the board ranks him 91st overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Dameon Pierce is 3.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 11 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.

Patrick Mahomes's market-based projection is 16.3 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 17th highest figure of the 194 players with a market-based 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, 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.

Through Week 6, Patrick Mahomes has been on the field for 100 percent of KC snaps, dropped back 174 times and thrown 6.3 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 24 of 174 dropbacks and scrambled 10 times.

In Week 3 against MIA he completed 20 of 24 passes for 246 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 4 against LV he completed 15 of 30 passes for 225 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 6 against LAC he completed 23 of 30 passes for 272 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 3 times for 19 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes played 14 games and scored 296.7 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing QB11.

He threw for 3587 yards on 502 attempts with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and ran for 422 yards and 5 touchdowns.

That came to 35.9 attempts a game at 7.1 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Patrick Mahomes was available for 9 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes scored 21.2 PPR points a game and Dameon Pierce 0.7, 20.5 a game between them.

Dameon Pierce finished RB128 and Patrick Mahomes QB11, which are two different ladders.

Dameon Pierce is a running back and Patrick Mahomes a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Dameon Pierce is off in Week 10 and Patrick Mahomes in Week 5, 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.