Should I start Michael Penix Jr. or Sione Vaki in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Michael Penix Jr., and the board ranks him 121st overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sione Vaki, and the board ranks him 131st overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Michael Penix Jr.'s market-based projection is 14.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 43rd highest figure of the 225 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Sione Vaki is 4.2 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 13 market sources. That is 90 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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

This season through Week 8

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.

Through Week 8, Sione Vaki has been on the field for 24 percent of DET snaps, taken 14 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 1 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 60 third down targets, had 0 of its 22 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 6 targets have averaged 1.7 air yards.

In Week 5 against ARI he carried 6 times for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against GB he carried 1 time for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against MIN he carried 11 times for 65 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 5 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 Sione Vaki played 11 games and scored 0.4 PPR points, 0.0 a game, finishing RB143.

He carried 1 time for 4 yards and 0 touchdowns, and caught 0 of 0 targets for 0 more yards.

That came to 0.1 carries a game at 4.0 yards a carry.

He was on the field for 0 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Sione Vaki was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Michael Penix Jr. scored 13.7 PPR points a game and Sione Vaki 0.0, 13.7 a game between them.

Michael Penix Jr. finished QB33 and Sione Vaki RB143, which are two different ladders.

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

Byes and availability

Michael Penix Jr. is off in Week 11. No bye is listed for Sione Vaki.

What would change the answer

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