Should I start Elijah Higgins or Dylan Sampson in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Elijah Higgins, and the board ranks him 139th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Dylan Sampson, and the board ranks him 140th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Elijah Higgins's market-based projection is 5.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 109th highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Dylan Sampson is 1.7 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.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Elijah Higgins has been on the field for 39 percent of ARI snaps, drawn 6 percent of the targets and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 88 third down targets, had 1 of its 29 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 57 two minute targets.

His 18 targets have averaged 2.7 air yards.

In Week 6 against LAR he caught 3 of 3 targets for 28 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against DEN he caught 3 of 3 targets for 17 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against DAL he caught 2 of 4 targets for 10 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, Dylan Sampson has been on the field for 51 percent of CLE snaps, taken 16 percent of the carries, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 6 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 18 third down targets, had 0 of its 6 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 19 two minute targets.

His 11 targets have come 0.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 7 against TEN he carried 6 times for 45 yards, caught 3 of 3 targets for 32 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against PIT he carried 1 time for 7 yards, caught 6 of 8 targets for 62 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Elijah Higgins played 17 games and scored 58.1 PPR points, 3.4 a game, finishing TE48.

He caught 30 of 37 targets for 301 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 2.2 targets a game, a 81 percent catch rate and 10.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 41 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Dylan Sampson played 15 games and scored 87.6 PPR points, 5.8 a game, finishing RB55.

He carried 65 times for 175 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 33 of 40 targets for 271 more yards.

That came to 4.3 carries a game at 2.7 yards a carry and 2.2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 25 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Elijah Higgins was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Dylan Sampson scored 5.8 PPR points a game and Elijah Higgins 3.4, 2.4 a game between them.

Elijah Higgins finished TE48 and Dylan Sampson RB55, which are two different ladders.

Elijah Higgins is a tight end and Dylan Sampson a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Dylan Sampson is off in Week 11. No bye is listed for Elijah Higgins.

What would change the answer

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