Should I start Darren Waller or Josh Allen in Week 8?

Where the draft room has them

Live drafts hold no current pick on Darren Waller, and the board ranks him 21st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Josh Allen goes at ADP 1, an average pick of 24.3, and the board has him QB5 in tier 2.

His earliest recorded pick is 1 and his latest 37, a standard deviation of 9.0 picks.

He appears in 16 recorded drafts across the draft formats we track.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 2.

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 23rd highest figure of the 198 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Josh Allen is 5.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 7 market sources. That is 0 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season so far

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 6, Josh Allen has been on the field for 100 percent of BUF snaps, dropped back 200 times and thrown 8.9 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 28 of 200 dropbacks and scrambled 17 times.

In Week 4 against NE he completed 23 of 33 passes for 253 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 5 times for 4 yards.

In Week 5 against LAR he completed 12 of 19 passes for 210 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 10 times for 121 yards.

In Week 6 against LV he completed 23 of 33 passes for 255 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 4 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 Josh Allen played 17 games and scored 374.6 PPR points, 22.0 a game, finishing QB1.

He threw for 3668 yards on 460 attempts with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and ran for 579 yards and 14 touchdowns.

That came to 27.1 attempts a game at 8.0 yards an attempt.

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

Josh Allen was available for 8 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Josh Allen scored 22.0 PPR points a game and Darren Waller 9.9, 12.2 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Josh Allen QB1, which are two different ladders.

Darren Waller is a tight end and Josh Allen 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 Josh Allen in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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