Jordan Love · Sam Darnold · 2026 week 1

Jordan Love or Sam Darnold?

Wondering who you should start this week — Jordan Love or Sam Darnold? The start/sit call and the numbers behind it are below, plus who wins a straight-up trade. Rebuilt nightly.

Start Sam Darnold — barelyThis one is a coin flip — the projections are within 0.1 points. The matchup leans Sam Darnold (NE allow the 22nd-most QB points), but you can defend either call.

Player	Wk 1	Proj (PPR)	Matchup	Form L3	Trade value	Status
Jordan Love	@ MIN	19.7	32nd · tough	13.3	659	healthy
Sam Darnold START	vs NE	19.8	22nd	12.5	379	healthy

QBs vs MIN recently: Jaxson Dart 1 pts (W16) · Jared Goff 4.1 pts (W17) · Clayton Tune 3.7 pts (W18).

QBs vs NE recently: Lamar Jackson 4.7 pts (W16) · Brady Cook 5.2 pts (W17) · Quinn Ewers 9.4 pts (W18).

Who wins a straight-up trade?

Jordan Love carries the higher trade value — 659 against 379 (a 42% gap). In a one-for-one, the side receiving Jordan Love gets the most. Momentum: Jordan Love -2 and Sam Darnold +54 over the last 30 days.

Open in Start/Sit (any scoring) Open in the Trade Analyzer

More QB decisions

Jordan Love or Brock Purdy?Jordan Love or Baker Mayfield?Jordan Love or Jared Goff?Sam Darnold or Kyler Murray?Sam Darnold or Tyler Shough?

Game logs, matchup ranks and form are the 2025 season — 2026 hasn’t kicked off. Projections, schedule and trade values are current 2026 numbers, refreshed nightly.