Sam Darnold vs Derek Carr: Week 4 Fantasy Start 'Em Sit 'Em projections

It might just be time to acknowledge Kevin O'Connell as one of the league's best offensive playcallers considering what we just witnessed Sam Darnold do in this setup against the Houston Texans. The Vikings offense was like a knife through butter as they cut through the defense and held their own in a 34-7 beatdown in Week 3. On the other hand, the Saints were given a reality check by the Philadelphia Eagles who held on for their second win of the year. So where does that leave Darnold and Carr in Week 4 fantasy football?

NFL: Houston Texans at Minnesota Vikings - Source: Imagn

Sam Darnold fantasy projection

The former-first round pick was handed a major injury scare against the Texans after he briefly left the field with a knee injury. Scans later revealed he suffered a knee bruise and no structural damage, which is pretty good news for the Vikings.

After three weeks of football, Darnold leads the league in passing touchdowns (8). He has completed 67.9% of his passes for 657 yards in three games and has also been getting some early MVP shouts.

While that might be a stretch given where we are in the season, the fact is that Darnold has been playing like a top-10 quarterback in three games under Kevin O'Connell.

At the time of writing, Darnold is rostered in 29% of Yahoo leagues and 16% of ESPN leagues. Alongside Justin Fields, Darnold should be among this week's top waiver wire targets but you'd be forgiven if you have some concerns about his upcoming games. The Vikings will face two tough defenses in the Packers and Jets before settling in for a bye week. The Jets are a no-nonsense top-5 defense on any given night so it might be difficult for Darnold to keep this production going. As a high-end QB2, however, Darnold's potential is pretty intriguing, all things considered.

Sam Darnold vs Derek Carr: Week 4 fantasy projections

Derek Carr fantasy projection

It was fun while it lasted. The Saints put up 91 total points through Week 2 of football but were bottled up by a tough Philadelphia Eagles defense on Sunday.

It's also important to note that the Saints just got some bad news on Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy’s groin injury. He is expected to require surgery and be sidelined for about 6-8 weeks.

While McCoy will aim to be back before the regular season ends, it will be difficult for Carr to keep up the production that saw them put up 91 points in two weeks. In Sunday's loss to Philly, Carr threw for a mere 142 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. A little regression was expected of Carr but in Week 4, he will go up against an Atlanta Falcons unit that doesn't exactly have a reputation for being an absolute lockdown unit. If Klint Kubiak and Derek Carr work their magic once again, we could see Carr back to putting up respectable numbers but don't expect the sort of outbursts he delivered in the first two weeks of fantasy football.

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Sam Darnold or Derek Carr: Who should you start in Week 4?

Sam Darnold vs Derek Carr: Week 4 fantasy projections

This may be recency bias speaking but we're leaning towards Sam Darnold this week. We expect Carr to bounce back against the league's 11th-ranked defense in Atlanta, but Darnold's matchup is just marginally better on paper and he's the hot hand heading into Week 4.

It's difficult to disagree with Sportskeeda's Who Should I Start analyzer here which projects a return of 16.6 points for the Vikings QB.