Should I start Michael Penix Jr. or Jaylen Waddle in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Michael Penix Jr., and the board ranks him 112th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jaylen Waddle, and the board ranks him 113th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 15; 2QB: ADP 36.

The market-based projections

Michael Penix Jr.'s market-based projection is 14.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 5 market sources. That is the 37th highest figure of the 196 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Jaylen Waddle is 3.0 PPR points a game off 1 market across 7 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.

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

This season through Week 6

Through Week 6, Michael Penix Jr. has been on the field for 99 percent of ATL snaps, dropped back 122 times and thrown 7.4 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 15 of 122 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.

In Week 4 against NO he completed 15 of 20 passes for 223 yards and threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions.

In Week 5 against BAL he completed 19 of 32 passes for 240 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 8 yards.

In Week 6 against CHI he completed 19 of 33 passes for 225 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

Through Week 6, Jaylen Waddle has been on the field for 68 percent of DEN snaps, drawn 22 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 13 of the offence's 50 third down targets, had 0 of its 17 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 22 two minute targets.

His 38 targets have averaged 9.2 air yards.

In Week 4 against SF he caught 5 of 6 targets for 35 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against LAC he carried 1 time for 9 yards, caught 2 of 5 targets for 19 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against SEA he caught 4 of 7 targets for 24 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Michael Penix Jr. played 9 games and scored 123.3 PPR points, 13.7 a game, finishing QB33.

He threw for 1982 yards on 276 attempts with 9 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, and ran for 70 yards and 1 touchdown.

That came to 30.7 attempts a game at 7.2 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 93 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Jaylen Waddle played 16 games and scored 194.1 PPR points, 12.1 a game, finishing WR24.

He caught 64 of 100 targets for 910 yards and 6 touchdowns, with 11 red zone targets.

That came to 6.3 targets a game, a 64 percent catch rate and 14.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jaylen Waddle was available for 7 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Michael Penix Jr. scored 13.7 PPR points a game and Jaylen Waddle 12.1, 1.6 a game between them.

Michael Penix Jr. finished QB33 and Jaylen Waddle WR24, which are two different ladders.

Michael Penix Jr. is a quarterback and Jaylen Waddle a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Michael Penix Jr. is off in Week 11 and Jaylen Waddle in Week 10, so either can cover the other's bye.

Michael Penix Jr. is listed as questionable on the injury report.

Jaylen Waddle is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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