Should I start Sam Darnold or Derrick Henry in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam Darnold, and the board ranks him 25th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 26.

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

The market-based projections

No season market is posted for Sam Darnold, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

Derrick Henry's market-based projection is 13.7 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 16th highest figure of the 183 players with a market-based projection.

This season so far

Through Week 7, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 89 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 196 times and thrown 7.0 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 39 of 196 dropbacks and scrambled 7 times.

In Week 5 against SF he completed 18 of 29 passes for 195 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

In Week 6 against DEN he completed 27 of 49 passes for 278 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and ran 2 times for 19 yards.

In Week 7 against KC he completed 20 of 28 passes for 257 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 17 yards.

Through Week 8, Derrick Henry has been on the field for 57 percent of BAL snaps, taken 71 percent of the carries, drawn 6 percent of the targets and had 51 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 66 third down targets, had 16 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 47 two minute targets.

His 14 targets have come 2.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against CLE he carried 17 times for 58 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 2 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he carried 17 times for 45 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 4 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against BUF he carried 11 times for 53 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 7 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Sam Darnold played 17 games and scored 249.4 PPR points, 14.7 a game, finishing QB13.

He threw for 4048 yards on 477 attempts with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and ran for 95 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 28.1 attempts a game at 9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Derrick Henry played 17 games and scored 279.5 PPR points, 16.4 a game, finishing RB8.

He carried 307 times for 1595 yards and 16 touchdowns, and caught 15 of 21 targets for 150 more yards.

That came to 18.1 carries a game at 5.2 yards a carry and 0.9 catches a game.

He was on the field for 54 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 Derrick Henry scored 16.4 PPR points a game and Sam Darnold 14.7, 1.8 a game between them.

Sam Darnold finished QB13 and Derrick Henry RB8, which are two different ladders.

Sam Darnold is a quarterback and Derrick Henry a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Sam Darnold is off in Week 11 and Derrick Henry in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Sam Darnold has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.