Should I start J.J. McCarthy or Sam Darnold in Week 10?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on J.J. McCarthy, and the board ranks him 20th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam Darnold, and the board ranks him 206th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 26.

The market-based projections

J.J. McCarthy's market-based projection is 16.0 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 14th highest figure of the 209 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Sam Darnold is 0.7 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 0 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 9, J.J. McCarthy has been on the field for 49 percent of NYG snaps, dropped back 75 times and thrown 11.5 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 15 of 75 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.

In Week 6 against NO he completed 11 of 17 passes for 243 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 26 yards.

In Week 7 against HOU he completed 20 of 27 passes for 252 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 9 against PHI he completed 12 of 19 passes for 127 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 23 yards.

Through Week 8, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 90 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 235 times and thrown 6.9 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 45 of 235 dropbacks and scrambled 9 times.

In Week 6 against DEN he completed 27 of 49 passes for 278 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and ran 2 times for 19 yards.

In Week 7 against KC he completed 20 of 28 passes for 257 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 17 yards.

In Week 8 against CHI he completed 17 of 34 passes for 188 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 20 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 J.J. McCarthy played 10 games and scored 137.4 PPR points, 13.7 a game, finishing QB30.

He threw for 1632 yards on 243 attempts with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, and ran for 181 yards and 4 touchdowns.

That came to 24.3 attempts a game at 6.7 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 94 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Sam Darnold played 17 games and scored 249.4 PPR points, 14.7 a game, finishing QB13.

He threw for 4048 yards on 477 attempts with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and ran for 95 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 28.1 attempts a game at 9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Sam Darnold was available for 7 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and J.J. McCarthy 13.7, 0.9 a game between them.

J.J. McCarthy finished QB30 that year and Sam Darnold QB13.

Sam Darnold had 234 more pass attempts than J.J. McCarthy, 477 to 243.

Sam Darnold had 2416 more passing yards than J.J. McCarthy, 4048 to 1632.

This season Sam Darnold holds the bigger snap share, 90 percent against 49 percent.

Their target share this season is the same, 0 percent each.

Byes and availability

Sam Darnold is off in Week 11. No bye is listed for J.J. McCarthy.

J.J. McCarthy is listed as questionable on the injury report.

Sam Darnold is listed as out on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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