Should I start Darren Waller or Germie Bernard in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 39th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Germie Bernard, and the board ranks him 41st overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 39th highest figure of the 198 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Germie Bernard is 5.2 PPR points a game off 1 market across 2 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Darren Waller has been on the field for 46 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 43 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 23 targets have averaged 10.0 air yards.

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.

In Week 7 against TB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 50 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 7, Germie Bernard has been on the field for 61 percent of PIT snaps, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 13 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 11 of the offence's 58 third down targets, had 0 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 41 two minute targets.

His 37 targets have averaged 5.7 air yards.

In Week 5 against IND he carried 1 time for 4 yards, caught 6 of 9 targets for 80 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against TB he caught 11 of 12 targets for 87 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against NO he caught 3 of 5 targets for 27 yards and did not score.

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.

Germie Bernard is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

Side by side

Darren Waller is a tight end and Germie Bernard a wide receiver, 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 Germie Bernard in Week 9, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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