Should I start Kenneth Walker or Sam LaPorta in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Kenneth Walker, and the board ranks him 73rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 6; 2QB: ADP 17.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam LaPorta, and the board ranks him 75th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Kenneth Walker is 7.1 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.

Sam LaPorta's market-based projection is 10.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 10 market sources. That is the 73rd highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season so far

Through Week 6, Kenneth Walker has been on the field for 75 percent of KC snaps, taken 76 percent of the carries, drawn 15 percent of the targets and had 58 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 5 of the offence's 40 third down targets, had 13 of its 19 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 19 two minute targets.

His 22 targets have come 1 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 3 against MIA he carried 18 times for 70 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 3 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 4 against LV he carried 22 times for 177 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 2 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 6 against LAC he carried 19 times for 128 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 11 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

Through Week 8, Sam LaPorta has been on the field for 90 percent of DET snaps, drawn 18 percent of the targets and had 12 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 8 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 2 of its 22 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 44 targets have averaged 6.1 air yards.

In Week 5 against ARI he caught 5 of 5 targets for 88 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against GB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 18 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against MIN he carried 1 time for 2 yards, caught 3 of 5 targets for 33 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

The season feed carries no line for Kenneth Walker in the last completed season.

In 2025 Sam LaPorta played 9 games and scored 106.9 PPR points, 11.9 a game, finishing TE27.

He caught 40 of 49 targets for 489 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 5.4 targets a game, a 82 percent catch rate and 12.2 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 90 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Side by side

Kenneth Walker is a running back and Sam LaPorta a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Kenneth Walker is off in Week 5 and Sam LaPorta in Week 6, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

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