Should I start Josh Jacobs or Michael Penix Jr. in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Josh Jacobs, and the board ranks him 21st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Michael Penix Jr., and the board ranks him 22nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Josh Jacobs's market-based projection is 14.8 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 10 market sources. That is the 13th highest figure of the 183 players with a market-based projection.

The market has Michael Penix Jr. at 16.5 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 7 market sources. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Michael Penix Jr.'s projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Josh Jacobs has been on the field for 62 percent of GB snaps, taken 71 percent of the carries, drawn 16 percent of the targets and had 67 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 24 third down targets, had 5 of its 6 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 5 two minute targets.

His 13 targets have averaged 2.8 air yards.

In Week 7 against DET he carried 11 times for 36 yards, caught 5 of 7 targets for 55 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against CAR he carried 21 times for 39 yards, caught 6 of 6 targets for 13 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

Through Week 8, Michael Penix Jr. has been on the field for 99 percent of ATL snaps, dropped back 59 times and thrown 7.2 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 0 of 59 dropbacks and scrambled 2 times.

In Week 7 against SF he completed 25 of 33 passes for 213 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 2 yards.

In Week 8 against TB he completed 8 of 24 passes for 125 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions and ran 5 times for 11 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Josh Jacobs played 15 games and scored 237.1 PPR points, 15.8 a game, finishing RB13.

He carried 234 times for 929 yards and 13 touchdowns, and caught 36 of 44 targets for 282 more yards.

That came to 15.6 carries a game at 4.0 yards a carry and 2.4 catches a game.

He was on the field for 59 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Josh Jacobs was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Josh Jacobs scored 15.8 PPR points a game and Michael Penix Jr. 13.7, 2.1 a game between them.

Josh Jacobs finished RB13 and Michael Penix Jr. QB33, which are two different ladders.

Josh Jacobs is a running back and Michael Penix Jr. a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Both are off in Week 11, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

What would change the answer

Michael Penix Jr. has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.