Sam Darnold or Marcus Mariota: who should I start in Week 5?
Both players' season market price, their usage this season and their last full season's numbers, with the draft market's own figures wherever it still has them.
Updated Oct 7, 2026 at 9:36 PM ET
Neither is in the consensus draft sample any more, and the market has not posted a whole price on Marcus Mariota, so there is no current market order to give between these two. What follows is what each of them has already done.
More fantasy football tools and rankings, all priced from the same board.
QB24 · SEA · bye 11
2025 vs pass yds line 9-8
- Market price
- 15.4 pts a game
- Draft pick
- no consensus
QB · WAS · bye unlisted
2025 vs anytime td line 1-10
- Overall rank
- not on the board
- Draft pick
- no consensus
- Tier
- not tiered
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The gap
- Pick differencenot comparable without a consensus on both
- Board size219 draftable players
Consensus average draft position has stopped updating on these two, so the figures that depend on it are left out rather than printed stale. The verdict line above restates the market price and nothing else.
Where the draft room stands
Drafters have formed no consensus on Sam Darnold: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 113th overall on the rest of his evidence.
In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 27.
Our board does not carry Marcus Mariota at all right now: the consensus draft sample has dropped him and there is no player market on him this week, so he has no rank, no tier and no ADP here.
What the player markets price
The player markets price Sam Darnold at 15.4 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 16 market sources. That is the 40th highest figure of the 183 players the market prices.
No season market is posted for Marcus Mariota, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.
This season through Week 4
Through Week 4, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 75 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 75 times and thrown 6.8 air yards an attempt.
He has been sacked or hit on 14 of 75 dropbacks and scrambled 2 times.
In Week 1 against NE he completed 1 of 2 passes for 13 yards and threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
In Week 3 against WAS he completed 31 of 45 passes for 379 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.
In Week 4 against LAC he completed 13 of 22 passes for 168 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 1 time for 8 yards.
Through Week 4, Marcus Mariota has been on the field for 54 percent of WAS snaps, dropped back 57 times and thrown 8.9 air yards an attempt.
He has been sacked or hit on 15 of 57 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.
In Week 2 against DAL he completed 11 of 16 passes for 111 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 3 yards.
In Week 3 against SEA he completed 19 of 31 passes for 183 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 13 yards.
In Week 4 against IND he completed 3 of 4 passes for 46 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 35 yards.
Their 2025 seasons
In 2025 Sam Darnold played 17 games and scored 249.4 PPR points, 14.7 a game, finishing QB13.
He threw for 4048 yards on 477 attempts with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and ran for 95 yards and 0 touchdowns.
That came to 28.1 attempts a game at 8.5 yards an attempt.
He was on the field for 96 percent of the snaps in the games he played.
In 2025 Marcus Mariota played 11 games and scored 132.5 PPR points, 12.0 a game, finishing QB32.
He threw for 1695 yards on 227 attempts with 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, and ran for 297 yards and 1 touchdown.
That came to 20.6 attempts a game at 7.5 yards an attempt.
He was on the field for 54 percent of the snaps in the games he played.
Sam Darnold was available for 6 games more.
Head to head
In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Marcus Mariota 12.0, 2.6 a game between them.
Sam Darnold finished QB13 that year and Marcus Mariota QB32.
Sam Darnold had 250 more pass attempts than Marcus Mariota, 477 to 227.
Sam Darnold had 2353 more passing yards than Marcus Mariota, 4048 to 1695.
This season Sam Darnold holds the bigger snap share, 75 percent against 54 percent.
Their target share this season is the same, 0 percent each.
Byes and availability
Sam Darnold is off in Week 11. No bye is listed for Marcus Mariota.
What would change the answer
Marcus Mariota has no posted market, so one half of the evidence on this page exists for only one of them.
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