Head to head · July 2026 draft-day read
Bucky Irving or David Montgomery?
Bucky Irving was the stronger 2025 producer — 12.3 vs 9.1 half-PPR points per game, at essentially the same July 2026 draft cost (ADP 48.2 vs 53.8). That gap was the draft-day case for Bucky Irving.
This week's projections are in the Week 9 start/sit card below. The July 2026 draft-day read that follows is opinion, framed from the cited 2025 data.
This week's start/sit · Half-PPR
Week 9: start Bucky Irving or David Montgomery?
Bucky Irving is the safer start: David Montgomery missed Weeks 6–7 and his Week 9 status isn't known yet.
Bucky Irving also projects higher: 13.3 vs 8.4 for David Montgomery if he plays.
-
RB · TB
Bucky Irving
13.3 pts projected · range 6.1–22.3
-
RB · HOU · Status unknown
David Montgomery
8.4 pts projected if he plays · range 1.2–17.4
Missed Weeks 6–7 — Week 9 status not reported yet (first practice report Wed, Nov 4)
2026 season · the games so far
2026 head-to-head so far
Through Week 8, Bucky Irving has out-scored David Montgomery by 7.2 PPR points per game, 16.3 to 9.1 (Bucky Irving 8 games, David Montgomery 5 games).
Through Week 8 · Week 8 in progress — 13 of 14 games final · nflverse stats as of
Bucky Irving · Week 8 injury report Injury report — not injury related: resting player, full practice
| Bucky Irving | Metric | David Montgomery |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Games | 5 |
| 16.3 | PPR points per game | 9.1 |
| 18.4 | Carries per game | 10.4 |
| 11% | Target share | 4% |
| 62% | Snap share | 47% |
| 17.3 | PPR points per game, last 3 games | 4.1 |
Purple marks the higher figure. Shares are team-relative, averaged per game; snap share counts only games with a published snap count. "Last 3 games" is each player's own last 3 games played. A dash means no 2026 figure. 2026 regular season via nflverse.
Game by game: Bucky Irving · David Montgomery
Draft-day record · July 2026
The July 2026 draft-day read
This is the July 2026 pre-draft read, kept as published. Every ADP and market figure on this page comes from the Fantasy Football Calculator snapshot of Jul 15, 2026 and is not updated in-season — 2026 drafts are over and ADP has stopped moving. In-season tools
Metric by metric
The tale of the tape
| Bucky Irving | Metric | David Montgomery |
|---|---|---|
| 48.2 (RB22) | Draft ADP (July 2026) | 53.8 (RB23) |
| 51 | Overall ADP rank (July 2026) | 54 |
| 12.3 | Fantasy points / game | 9.1 |
| 10.7% | Target share | — |
| 7.6% | Target share, last 3 games (2025) | — |
| 22 | Sleeper search rank (July 2026) | 48 |
Purple marks the better figure. A dash means the engine did not cite that metric for that player. 2025 regular season via nflverse · ADP via Fantasy Football Calculator, Jul 15, 2026 snapshot.
The consensus read
July 2026 drafts separated them by a hair — Bucky Irving at ADP 48.2, David Montgomery at ADP 53.8. On 2025 production it is 12.3 vs 9.1 half-PPR points per game.
What had to be true
This call flipped on beliefs that were checkable at the time. Every belief was tied to a checkpoint: the exact data point that would confirm or deny it, with its value at the time of the July 2026 read.
-
Checkpoint · Bucky Irving
Target share, last 3 games vs season (2025)
7.6% last 3 vs 10.7% season (2025) · as of July 2026
Strong move if you believed
Bucky Irving's late-2025 target dip was matchup noise, not a role change
Poor move if instead
Bucky Irving's target share is fading from the season baseline
Sources: Fantasy Football Calculator · Sleeper · nflverse. Every figure here is a value the analysis engine cited from the underlying data. Stats are 2025 regular season via nflverse (CC-BY 4.0); ADP via Fantasy Football Calculator (Jul 15, 2026 snapshot, not updated in-season).
FantasyTools analysis is opinion for entertainment purposes only — not betting, financial, or professional advice.