Should I start Darren Waller or Jared Goff in Week 8?

Updated Oct 27, 11:06 PM ET. Week 9 answers post Tuesday.

Start Jared Goff: 99 percent of the snaps and 0 percent of the targets over their last 3 games, against Darren Waller's 48 percent of the snaps and 10 percent of the targets. No market projection is posted on either of them this week, so this is a usage call, and a lower confidence one than a call made on a projection. What follows is what each of them has done.

Should I drop Darren Waller for Jared Goff?

Yes, on the rest of the season. Jared Goff projects 167 market-implied PPR points from Week 8 through Week 17 (16.7 a game over 10 games), Darren Waller 63 (6.3 a game over 10 games).

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Your next move

More fantasy football tools and rankings, all built from the same board.

Both players' season market-based projection, their usage this season and their last full season's numbers.

Darren Waller

TE8 · CAR · bye 5

2026 vs anytime td line 2-4

Market-based projection: 5.9 pts a game

Jared Goff

QB5 · DET · bye 6

2026 vs pass yds line 4-2

Overall rank: 57

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The gap

Board size294 draftable players

Draft data is not current for these two, so the figures that depend on it are left out. The call above comes from each player's usage.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 55th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jared Goff, and the board ranks him 57th 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 65th highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Jared Goff is 18.4 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 14 market sources. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Jared Goff'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, Jared Goff has been on the field for 99 percent of DET snaps, dropped back 240 times and thrown 7.9 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 33 of 240 dropbacks and scrambled 5 times.

In Week 4 against CAR he completed 32 of 52 passes for 412 yards and threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions.

In Week 5 against ARI he completed 19 of 30 passes for 271 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 7 against GB he completed 22 of 32 passes for 303 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 0 yards.

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 Jared Goff played 17 games and scored 305.1 PPR points, 17.9 a game, finishing QB9.

He threw for 4564 yards on 578 attempts with 34 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, and ran for 45 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 34.0 attempts a game at 7.9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 98 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jared Goff was available for 8 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Jared Goff scored 17.9 PPR points a game and Darren Waller 9.9, 8.1 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Jared Goff QB9, which are two different ladders.

Darren Waller is a tight end and Jared Goff a quarterback, 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 Jared Goff in Week 6, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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

Drop or keep

Should I drop Darren Waller for Jared Goff?
Yes, on the rest of the season. Jared Goff projects 167 market-implied PPR points from Week 8 through Week 17 (16.7 a game over 10 games), Darren Waller 63 (6.3 a game over 10 games).
Should I drop Jared Goff for Darren Waller?
No. Keep Jared Goff: he projects 167 market-implied PPR points from Week 8 through Week 17 (16.7 a game over 10 games), Darren Waller 63 (6.3 a game over 10 games).

Should I drop Darren Waller?