Should I start Javonte Williams or Kenny Gainwell in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Javonte Williams, and the board ranks him 42nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Kenny Gainwell, and the board ranks him 45th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Javonte Williams is 6.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 7 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.

The market-based projection for Kenny Gainwell is 6.6 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 4 market sources. That is 40 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Javonte Williams has been on the field for 75 percent of DAL snaps, taken 69 percent of the carries, drawn 8 percent of the targets and had 40 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 63 third down targets, had 17 of its 26 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 48 two minute targets.

His 22 targets have come 1.6 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 5 against TB he carried 12 times for 45 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 17 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 6 against GB he carried 11 times for 41 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 9 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against PHI he carried 25 times for 155 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 7, Kenny Gainwell has been on the field for 35 percent of TB snaps, taken 16 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 9 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 57 third down targets, had 0 of its 13 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have come 2.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 5 against DAL he carried 4 times for 18 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 10 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against PIT he carried 2 times for 17 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CAR he carried 14 times for 88 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Javonte Williams played 16 games and scored 242.8 PPR points, 15.2 a game, finishing RB12.

He carried 252 times for 1201 yards and 11 touchdowns, and caught 35 of 51 targets for 137 more yards.

That came to 15.8 carries a game at 4.8 yards a carry and 2.2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 68 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Kenny Gainwell played 17 games and scored 222.3 PPR points, 13.1 a game, finishing RB16.

He carried 114 times for 537 yards and 5 touchdowns, and caught 73 of 85 targets for 486 more yards.

That came to 6.7 carries a game at 4.7 yards a carry and 4.3 catches a game.

He was on the field for 49 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Kenny Gainwell was available for 1 game more.

Head to head

In 2025 Javonte Williams scored 15.2 PPR points a game and Kenny Gainwell 13.1, 2.1 a game between them.

Javonte Williams finished RB12 that year and Kenny Gainwell RB16.

Javonte Williams had 138 more carries than Kenny Gainwell, 252 to 114.

Kenny Gainwell had 38 more catches than Javonte Williams, 73 to 35.

This season Javonte Williams holds the bigger snap share, 75 percent against 35 percent.

This season Javonte Williams holds the bigger share of the carries, 69 percent against 16 percent.

Byes and availability

Javonte Williams is off in Week 14 and Kenny Gainwell in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

Kenny Gainwell is listed as questionable on the injury report.