Head to head · July 2026 draft-day read
Justin Herbert or Jayden Daniels?
Justin Herbert was the stronger 2025 producer — 17.9 vs 16.3 half-PPR points per game, at essentially the same July 2026 draft cost (ADP 78.1 vs 84.4). That gap was the draft-day case for Justin Herbert.
This week's projections are in the Week 5 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 5: start Justin Herbert or Jayden Daniels?
Justin Herbert is the safer start: Jayden Daniels missed Weeks 3–4 (elbow) and his Week 5 status isn't known yet.
If Jayden Daniels is cleared, his projection is 17.0 vs Justin Herbert's 14.4.
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QB · WAS · Status unknown
Jayden Daniels
16.9 pts projected if he plays · range 6.1–28.1
Missed Weeks 3–4 (elbow) — no Week 5 game status yet (Week 5 practice report: full practice)
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QB · LAC
Justin Herbert
14.4 pts projected · range 3.5–25.6
2026 season · the games so far
2026 head-to-head so far
Through Week 4, Jayden Daniels has out-scored Justin Herbert by 5.3 PPR points per game, 16.2 to 10.9 (Justin Herbert 4 games, Jayden Daniels 2 games).
Through Week 4 · nflverse stats as of
Jayden Daniels · Week 5 injury report Injury report — elbow, full practice
| Justin Herbert | Metric | Jayden Daniels |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Games | 2 |
| 10.9 | PPR points per game | 16.2 |
| 204.0 | Pass yards per game | 130.0 |
| 4.5 | Carries per game | 6.0 |
| 100% | Snap share | 78% |
| 10.1 | PPR points per game, last 3 games | 16.2 |
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: Justin Herbert · Jayden Daniels
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
| Justin Herbert | Metric | Jayden Daniels |
|---|---|---|
| 78.1 (QB8) | Draft ADP (July 2026) | 84.4 (QB9) |
| 80 | Overall ADP rank (July 2026) | 88 |
| 17.9 | Fantasy points / game | 16.3 |
| +4.1 | Points over expected (FPOE) | — |
| 25 | Sleeper search rank (July 2026) | 9 |
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.
xFP (expected fantasy points) is what a typical player would score with the same targets, carries and field position. FPOE (points over expected) is actual points minus xFP, per game.
The consensus read
July 2026 drafts separated them by a hair — Justin Herbert at ADP 78.1, Jayden Daniels at ADP 84.4. On 2025 production it is 17.9 vs 16.3 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.
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Checkpoint · Justin Herbert
Points over expected (FPOE) per game, season (2025)
+4.1 pts/gm vs expectation (2025) · as of July 2026
Strong move if you believed
Justin Herbert's scoring over expected (xFP) is skill, not variance
Poor move if instead
Justin Herbert's scoring over expected regresses to the xFP 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.