Should I start Samaje Perine or Kaleb Johnson in Week 7?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 142nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Kaleb Johnson, and the board ranks him 148th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Samaje Perine is 1.7 PPR points a game off 1 market across 9 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

The market-based projection for Kaleb Johnson 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.

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

This season so far

Through Week 5, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 37 percent of CIN snaps, taken 25 percent of the carries, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 16 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 46 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 33 two minute targets.

His 10 targets have averaged 1.3 air yards.

In Week 3 against PIT he carried 3 times for 9 yards, caught 1 of 3 targets for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against JAX he carried 3 times for 7 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against MIA he carried 14 times for 68 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 10 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 6, Kaleb Johnson has been on the field for 22 percent of GB snaps, taken 29 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 54 third down targets, had 2 of its 14 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 23 two minute targets.

His 3 targets have come 0.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 4 against TB he carried 8 times for 42 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against CHI he carried 7 times for 26 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against DAL he carried 1 time for -2 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 Kaleb Johnson played 10 games and scored 8.8 PPR points, 0.9 a game, finishing RB115.

He carried 28 times for 69 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 1 of 2 targets for 9 more yards.

That came to 2.8 carries a game at 3 yards a carry and 0.1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 6 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Samaje Perine was available for 5 games more.

Head to head

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

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and Kaleb Johnson RB115.

Samaje Perine had 56 more carries than Kaleb Johnson, 84 to 28.

Samaje Perine had 16 more catches than Kaleb Johnson, 17 to 1.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger snap share, 37 percent against 22 percent.

This season Kaleb Johnson holds the bigger share of the carries, 29 percent against 25 percent.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6 and Kaleb Johnson in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.