Samaje Perine or Saquon Barkley: who should I start in Week 5?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Samaje Perine: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 182nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Saquon Barkley: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 186th overall on the rest of his evidence.

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

What the player markets price

The market has Samaje Perine at 4.3 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 13 market sources. That is 70 percent of what a running back's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

The market has Saquon Barkley at 3.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. That is 30 percent of what a running back's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Samaje Perine's price is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 4

Through Week 4, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 34 percent of CIN snaps, taken 16 percent of the carries, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 10 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 5 of the offence's 37 third down targets, had 0 of its 8 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 31 two minute targets.

His 8 targets have averaged 2.0 air yards.

In Week 2 against HOU he carried 2 times for 6 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 16 yards and did not score.

In Week 3 against PIT he carried 3 times for 9 yards, caught 1 of 3 targets for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against JAX he carried 3 times for 7 yards, caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

Through Week 4, Saquon Barkley has been on the field for 38 percent of PHI snaps, taken 36 percent of the carries, drawn 7 percent of the targets and had 14 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 33 third down targets, had 2 of its 8 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 24 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have come 0.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 2 against TEN he carried 4 times for 9 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 11 yards and did not score.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Samaje Perine played 15 games and scored 77.9 PPR points, 5.2 a game, finishing RB57.

He carried 84 times for 382 yards and 3 touchdowns, and caught 17 of 21 targets for 87 more yards.

That came to 5.6 carries a game at 4.5 yards a carry and 1.1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 34 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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 17.5 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.

Saquon Barkley was available for 1 game more.

Head to head

In 2025 Saquon Barkley scored 14.5 PPR points a game and Samaje Perine 5.2, 9.3 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and Saquon Barkley RB14.

Saquon Barkley had 196 more carries than Samaje Perine, 280 to 84.

Saquon Barkley had 20 more catches than Samaje Perine, 37 to 17.

This season Saquon Barkley holds the bigger snap share, 38 percent against 34 percent.

This season Saquon Barkley holds the bigger share of the carries, 36 percent against 16 percent.

Byes and availability

Saquon Barkley is off in Week 10. No bye is listed for Samaje Perine.

Saquon Barkley is listed as questionable on the injury report.