Should I start Samaje Perine or Malik Willis 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 Malik Willis, and the board ranks him 143rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 38.

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.

Malik Willis's market-based projection is 13.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 10 market sources. That is the 54th highest figure of the 210 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 5

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 5, Malik Willis has been on the field for 100 percent of MIA snaps, dropped back 160 times and thrown 10.4 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 24 of 160 dropbacks and scrambled 17 times.

In Week 3 against KC he completed 20 of 36 passes for 210 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 9 times for 56 yards.

In Week 4 against MIN he completed 9 of 17 passes for 85 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 11 yards.

In Week 5 against CIN he completed 15 of 26 passes for 137 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 8 times for 74 yards.

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 Malik Willis played 4 games and scored 51.2 PPR points, 12.8 a game, finishing QB45.

He threw for 422 yards on 35 attempts with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, and ran for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns.

That came to 8.8 attempts a game at 12.1 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 10 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Samaje Perine was available for 11 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Malik Willis scored 12.8 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 7.6 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 and Malik Willis QB45, which are two different ladders.

Samaje Perine is a running back and Malik Willis 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 6, so a roster holding the pair has that one week to cover twice.

What would change the answer

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