Should I start Samaje Perine or Sione Vaki in Week 9?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Samaje Perine, and the board ranks him 83rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Sione Vaki, and the board ranks him 93rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Samaje Perine's market-based projection is 4.8 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 99th highest figure of the 219 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Sione Vaki is 4.3 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 7 market sources. That is 70 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, Samaje Perine has been on the field for 35 percent of CIN snaps, taken 23 percent of the carries, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 18 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 61 third down targets, had 1 of its 17 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 43 two minute targets.

His 11 targets have averaged 1.3 air yards.

In Week 5 against MIA he carried 14 times for 68 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 10 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 7 against BAL he carried 4 times for 16 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 8 against TEN he carried 4 times for 10 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 9 yards and did not score.

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 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 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 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.

Samaje Perine was available for 4 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Samaje Perine scored 5.2 PPR points a game and Sione Vaki 0.0, 5.2 a game between them.

Samaje Perine finished RB57 that year and Sione Vaki RB143.

Samaje Perine had 83 more carries than Sione Vaki, 84 to 1.

Samaje Perine had 17 more catches than Sione Vaki, 17 to 0.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger snap share, 35 percent against 24 percent.

This season Samaje Perine holds the bigger share of the carries, 23 percent against 14 percent.

Byes and availability

Samaje Perine is off in Week 6. 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.