Saquon Barkley or Seth McGowan: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Saquon Barkley: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 115th overall on the rest of his evidence.

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

Drafters have formed no consensus on Seth McGowan: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 122nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Saquon Barkley is 3.9 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.

The market-based projection for Seth McGowan is 3.3 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 13 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.

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

This season so far

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.

Through Week 5, Seth McGowan has been on the field for 18 percent of IND snaps, taken 13 percent of the carries, drawn 2 percent of the targets and had 7 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 4 targets have averaged 0.8 air yards.

In Week 3 against HOU he carried 4 times for 14 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against WAS he carried 6 times for 31 yards, caught 1 of 2 targets for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against PIT he carried 5 times for 16 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 3 yards and did not score.

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.

Seth McGowan is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

Head to head

This season Saquon Barkley holds the bigger snap share, 38 percent against 18 percent.

This season Saquon Barkley holds the bigger share of the carries, 36 percent against 13 percent.

Byes and availability

Saquon Barkley is off in Week 10. No bye is listed for Seth McGowan.

Saquon Barkley is listed as questionable on the injury report.