Zay Flowers or Sam Darnold: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Zay Flowers: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 126th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Sam Darnold: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 127th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 26.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Zay Flowers is 2.4 PPR points a game off 1 market across 9 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Sam Darnold's market-based projection is 14.4 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 43rd highest figure of the 145 players with a market-based projection.

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

This season through Week 5

Through Week 5, Zay Flowers has been on the field for 55 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 30 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 26 third down targets, had 0 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 6 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have averaged 8.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against DAL he carried 1 time for 20 yards, caught 5 of 6 targets for 84 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against TEN he caught 8 of 10 targets for 118 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against ATL he carried 1 time for 13 yards, caught 8 of 9 targets for 53 yards and did not score.

Through Week 5, Sam Darnold has been on the field for 81 percent of SEA snaps, dropped back 110 times and thrown 6.7 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 22 of 110 dropbacks and scrambled 3 times.

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.

In Week 5 against SF he completed 18 of 29 passes for 195 yards, threw 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and ran 1 time for 5 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Zay Flowers played 17 games and scored 243.3 PPR points, 14.3 a game, finishing WR7.

He caught 86 of 118 targets for 1211 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 10 red zone targets.

That came to 6.9 targets a game, a 73 percent catch rate and 14.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 86 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 Sam Darnold scored 14.7 PPR points a game and Zay Flowers 14.3, 0.4 a game between them.

Zay Flowers finished WR7 and Sam Darnold QB13, which are two different ladders.

Zay Flowers is a wide receiver and Sam Darnold a quarterback, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Zay Flowers is off in Week 13 and Sam Darnold in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Zay Flowers is only part priced, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.