Should I start Samaje Perine or George Pickens in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 61st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on George Pickens, and the board ranks him 62nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Samaje Perine's market-based projection is 4.8 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 51st highest figure of the 212 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for George Pickens is 4.3 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 35 percent of CIN snaps, taken 23 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 18 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 61 third down targets, had 1 of its 17 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 11 targets have averaged 1.3 air yards.

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

In Week 7 against BAL he carried 4 times for 16 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against TEN he carried 4 times for 10 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 9 yards and did not score.

Through Week 8, George Pickens has been on the field for 78 percent of DAL snaps, drawn 21 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 23 of the offence's 69 third down targets, had 3 of its 31 chances inside the five and seen 11 of its 50 two minute targets.

His 62 targets have averaged 11.6 air yards.

In Week 6 against GB he caught 6 of 11 targets for 73 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against PHI he caught 4 of 6 targets for 57 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against ARI he caught 2 of 4 targets for 48 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 George Pickens played 17 games and scored 291.9 PPR points, 17.2 a game, finishing WR5.

He caught 93 of 137 targets for 1429 yards and 9 touchdowns, with 21 red zone targets.

That came to 8.1 targets a game, a 68 percent catch rate and 15.4 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 83 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

George Pickens was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 George Pickens scored 17.2 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 12.0 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 and George Pickens WR5, which are two different ladders.

Samaje Perine is a running back and George Pickens a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6 and George Pickens in Week 14, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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