Should I start Darren Waller or Samaje Perine in Week 7?

Updated Oct 21, 9:21 AM ET. Week 8 answers post Tuesday.

Start Darren Waller: 50 percent of the snaps and 14 percent of the targets over their last 3 games, against Samaje Perine's 39 percent of the snaps and 32 percent of the carries. 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 Samaje Perine for Darren Waller?

Yes, on the rest of the season. Darren Waller projects 74 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.7 a game over 11 games), Samaje Perine 50 (4.5 a game over 11 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

TE17 · CAR · bye 5

2026 vs anytime td line 1-4

Market-based projection: 6.3 pts a game

Samaje Perine

RB43 · CIN · bye 6

2026 vs carries line 2-3

Overall rank: 123

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The gap

Board size304 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 122nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 123rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Darren Waller's market-based projection is 6.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 97th highest figure of the 201 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Samaje Perine is 1.7 PPR points a game off 1 market across 8 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.

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

This season so far

Through Week 6, Darren Waller has been on the field for 46 percent of CAR snaps, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 40 third down targets, had 0 of its 11 chances inside the five and seen 7 of its 29 two minute targets.

His 21 targets have averaged 8.8 air yards.

In Week 3 against CLE he caught 5 of 8 targets for 51 yards and did not score.

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.

Through Week 5, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 37 percent of CIN snaps, taken 25 percent of the carries, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 16 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 46 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 33 two minute targets.

His 10 targets have averaged 1.3 air yards.

In Week 3 against PIT he carried 3 times for 9 yards, caught 1 of 3 targets for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against JAX he carried 3 times for 7 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against MIA he carried 14 times for 68 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 10 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

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 Samaje Perine played 15 games and scored 77.9 PPR points, 5.2 a game, finishing RB57.

He carried 84 times for 382 yards and 3 touchdowns, and caught 17 of 21 targets for 87 more yards.

That came to 5.6 carries a game at 5 yards a carry and 1.1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 34 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Samaje Perine was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Darren Waller scored 9.9 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 4.7 a game between them.

Darren Waller finished TE33 and Samaje Perine RB57, which are two different ladders.

Darren Waller is a tight end and Samaje Perine a running back, 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 Samaje Perine in Week 6, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Samaje Perine 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 Samaje Perine for Darren Waller?
Yes, on the rest of the season. Darren Waller projects 74 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.7 a game over 11 games), Samaje Perine 50 (4.5 a game over 11 games).
Should I drop Darren Waller for Samaje Perine?
No. Keep Darren Waller: he projects 74 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.7 a game over 11 games), Samaje Perine 50 (4.5 a game over 11 games).