Should I start Javonte Williams or Darren Waller in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Javonte Williams, and the board ranks him 26th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 28th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Javonte Williams is 7.2 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 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.

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 30th highest figure of the 198 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Javonte Williams has been on the field for 75 percent of DAL snaps, taken 69 percent of the carries, drawn 8 percent of the targets and had 40 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 63 third down targets, had 17 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 48 two minute targets.

His 22 targets have come 1.6 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 5 against TB he carried 12 times for 45 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 17 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against GB he carried 11 times for 41 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 9 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against PHI he carried 25 times for 155 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Javonte Williams played 16 games and scored 242.8 PPR points, 15.2 a game, finishing RB12.

He carried 252 times for 1201 yards and 11 touchdowns, and caught 35 of 51 targets for 137 more yards.

That came to 15.8 carries a game at 4.8 yards a carry and 2.2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 68 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Javonte Williams was available for 7 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Javonte Williams scored 15.2 PPR points a game and Darren Waller 9.9, 5.3 a game between them.

Javonte Williams finished RB12 and Darren Waller TE33, which are two different ladders.

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

Byes and availability

Javonte Williams is off in Week 14 and Darren Waller in Week 5, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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