Who Should I Start? Sam Darnold or Brock Purdy


Week 1 Projections

Fant.
Pts.
Rush.
Yds.
Rush
TD
Rec. Rec.
Yds.
Rec
TD
22.2 8.6 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

Sam Darnold News

Sam Darnold Should Benefit From a Strong Supporting Cast

Tuesday, August 25, 8:18 PM

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold has a talented group of weapons around him at wide receiver, running back, and tight end. Although Jake Bobo (knee) went down with a season-ending ACL tear, this is still a very talented wide receiver room headlined by Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Rashid Shaheed. All three have different skill sets that should give Darnold plenty of options in the passing game. At tight end, AJ Barner is coming off a big 2025 campaign, while Elijah Arroyo has a second-round draft stock. Meanwhile, the Seahawks have an impressive backfield featuring Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet (knee). Rounding out the offense is a very dependable offensive line. The Seahawks didn't make many additions in the trenches, but mostly because it was already a strong unit. Grey Zabel and Charles Cross are terrific blindside protectors for Darnold, who only took 27 sacks last year (as opposed to 48 in 2024 with Minnesota). Despite having limited mobility, the veteran signal caller has ranked as a top-13 quarterback in fantasy football for each of the last two seasons. He enters the 2026 season as the QB23 in RotoBaller's latest draft rankings.


Week 1 Projections

Fant.
Pts.
Rush.
Yds.
Rush
TD
Rec. Rec.
Yds.
Rec
TD
23.3 14.5 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0

Brock Purdy News

Brock Purdy Should Continue to Benefit from Strong Supporting Cast

Friday, August 28, 8:48 PM

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy continues to rank as a fringe top-12 option in fantasy football, largely due to the support of the playmakers surrounding him. In addition to wide receivers Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel, Purdy will have the luxury of throwing the football to George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey, who are both among some of the league's best players at their respective positions. With a relatively similar-looking offense last year (other than Evans in place of Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall), Purdy tallied 2,167 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns, and 10 interceptions across nine games. The touchdown total was impressive, but managers will need him to clean up the turnovers going forward. The good news is that Purdy ranked as the overall QB5 in fantasy points per game in 2025, so a top-five finish is not completely out of the question if he's healthy for all 17 games in 2026. At the very least, he's in good shape to rank as a top-12 fantasy quarterback. As it stands, he has an ADP of 106.3, which corresponds to the ninth round and makes him the 13th quarterback off the board.


Sam Darnold vs. Brock Purdy

Still trying to decide between Darnold and Purdy? Check on the latest news to make sure both players are active and healthy. Our PPR projections show that Sam Darnold is projected to score 22.2 points this week while Brock Purdy is projected to score 23.3 points.