Should I start Sam Darnold or Sione Vaki in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sam Darnold, and the board ranks him 115th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 26.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sione Vaki, and the board ranks him 116th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Sam Darnold's market-based projection is 15.6 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 8 market sources. That is the 33rd highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Sione Vaki is 3.6 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 11 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, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 90 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 235 times and thrown 6.9 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 45 of 235 dropbacks and scrambled 9 times.

In Week 6 against DEN he completed 27 of 49 passes for 278 yards, threw 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and ran 2 times for 19 yards.

In Week 7 against KC he completed 20 of 28 passes for 257 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 17 yards.

In Week 8 against CHI he completed 17 of 34 passes for 188 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 2 times for 20 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 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 9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 96 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.

Sam Darnold was available for 6 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Sione Vaki 0.0, 14.6 a game between them.

Sam Darnold finished QB13 and Sione Vaki RB143, which are two different ladders.

Sam Darnold 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

Sam Darnold 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.