Should I start Samaje Perine or David Montgomery in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 90th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on David Montgomery, and the board ranks him 102nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 33.

The market-based projections

Samaje Perine's market-based projection is 6.1 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 120th highest figure of the 214 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for David Montgomery is 5.5 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 5

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.

Through Week 5, David Montgomery has been on the field for 46 percent of HOU snaps, taken 45 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 28 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 3 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 3.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against IND he carried 11 times for 33 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 15 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against DAL he carried 10 times for 24 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TEN he carried 5 times for 11 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 David Montgomery played 17 games and scored 166.9 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing RB27.

He carried 158 times for 716 yards and 8 touchdowns, and caught 24 of 29 targets for 192 more yards.

That came to 9.3 carries a game at 5 yards a carry and 1.4 catches a game.

He was on the field for 37 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

David Montgomery was available for 2 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 David Montgomery scored 9.8 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 4.6 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and David Montgomery RB27.

David Montgomery had 74 more carries than Samaje Perine, 158 to 84.

David Montgomery had 7 more catches than Samaje Perine, 24 to 17.

This season David Montgomery holds the bigger snap share, 46 percent against 37 percent.

This season David Montgomery holds the bigger share of the carries, 45 percent against 25 percent.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6 and David Montgomery in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

David Montgomery is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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