Should I start Saquon Barkley or Patrick Mahomes in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Saquon Barkley, and the board ranks him 95th overall on the rest of his evidence.

By format he goes standard: ADP 3; 2QB: ADP 14.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Patrick Mahomes, and the board ranks him 97th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Saquon Barkley is 3.8 PPR points a game off 1 market across 3 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.

Patrick Mahomes's market-based projection is 15.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 20th highest figure of the 201 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 7

Through Week 7, Saquon Barkley has been on the field for 33 percent of PHI snaps, taken 34 percent of the carries, drawn 6 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 44 third down targets, had 2 of its 11 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 32 two minute targets.

His 9 targets have come 0.6 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 3 against CHI he carried 15 times for 82 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for -2 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against LAR he carried 2 times for 8 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 2 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against DAL he carried 7 times for 62 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 9 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 7, Patrick Mahomes has been on the field for 100 percent of KC snaps, dropped back 210 times and thrown 6.0 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 31 of 210 dropbacks and scrambled 12 times.

In Week 4 against LV he completed 15 of 30 passes for 225 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 1 time for 1 yards.

In Week 6 against LAC he completed 23 of 30 passes for 272 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 3 times for 19 yards.

In Week 7 against SEA he completed 19 of 33 passes for 165 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 14 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Saquon Barkley played 16 games and scored 232.3 PPR points, 14.5 a game, finishing RB14.

He carried 280 times for 1140 yards and 7 touchdowns, and caught 37 of 50 targets for 273 more yards.

That came to 17-18 carries a game at 4.1 yards a carry and 2.3 catches a game.

He was on the field for 78 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes played 14 games and scored 296.7 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing QB11.

He threw for 3587 yards on 502 attempts with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and ran for 422 yards and 5 touchdowns.

That came to 35.9 attempts a game at 7.1 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Saquon Barkley was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Patrick Mahomes scored 21.2 PPR points a game and Saquon Barkley 14.5, 6.7 a game between them.

Saquon Barkley finished RB14 and Patrick Mahomes QB11, which are two different ladders.

Saquon Barkley is a running back and Patrick Mahomes a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Saquon Barkley is off in Week 10 and Patrick Mahomes in Week 5, so either can cover the other's bye.

Saquon Barkley is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

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