Should I start Samaje Perine or Jonathan Taylor 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 Jonathan Taylor, and the board ranks him 63rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 4.

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 Jonathan Taylor is 4.6 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.

Jonathan Taylor'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, Jonathan Taylor has been on the field for 78 percent of IND snaps, taken 67 percent of the carries, drawn 12 percent of the targets and had 47 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 64 third down targets, had 15 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 35 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have come 1.4 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against TEN he carried 21 times for 94 yards, caught 2 of 4 targets for 57 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against MIN he carried 18 times for 95 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 15 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against JAX he carried 8 times for 23 yards, caught 4 of 5 targets for 24 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 Jonathan Taylor played 17 games and scored 362.3 PPR points, 21.3 a game, finishing RB4.

He carried 323 times for 1585 yards and 18 touchdowns, and caught 46 of 55 targets for 378 more yards.

That came to 19.0 carries a game at 4.9 yards a carry and 2.7 catches a game.

He was on the field for 84 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Jonathan Taylor was available for 2 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Jonathan Taylor scored 21.3 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 16.1 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and Jonathan Taylor RB4.

Jonathan Taylor had 239 more carries than Samaje Perine, 323 to 84.

Jonathan Taylor had 29 more catches than Samaje Perine, 46 to 17.

This season Jonathan Taylor holds the bigger snap share, 78 percent against 35 percent.

This season Jonathan Taylor holds the bigger share of the carries, 67 percent against 23 percent.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6 and Jonathan Taylor in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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