Should I start Samaje Perine or Jeremy McNichols in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 85th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Jeremy McNichols, and the board ranks him 150th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Samaje Perine's market-based projection is 4.7 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 100th highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Jeremy McNichols is 1.4 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.

Jeremy McNichols'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, Jeremy McNichols has been on the field for 19 percent of WAS snaps, taken 24 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 21 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 16 third down targets, had 1 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 7 two minute targets.

His 1 target have averaged 1.0 air yards.

In Week 6 against SF he carried 5 times for 13 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against PHI he carried 5 times for 21 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 7 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 Jeremy McNichols played 17 games and scored 72.7 PPR points, 4.3 a game, finishing RB58.

He carried 44 times for 221 yards and 1 touchdown, and caught 25 of 31 targets for 196 more yards.

That came to 2.6 carries a game at 5.0 yards a carry and 1-2 catches a game.

He was on the field for 33 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jeremy McNichols was available for 2 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Samaje Perine scored 5.2 PPR points a game and Jeremy McNichols 4.3, 0.9 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and Jeremy McNichols RB58.

Samaje Perine had 40 more carries than Jeremy McNichols, 84 to 44.

Jeremy McNichols had 8 more catches than Samaje Perine, 25 to 17.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger snap share, 35 percent against 19 percent.

This season Jeremy McNichols holds the bigger share of the carries, 24 percent against 23 percent.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6 and Jeremy McNichols in Week 7, so either can cover the other's bye.

Jeremy McNichols is listed as ir on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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