Should I start Rico Dowdle or Christian McCaffrey in Week 10?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rico Dowdle, and the board ranks him 27th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Christian McCaffrey, and the board ranks him 29th overall on the rest of his evidence.

In 2QB drafts he goes at ADP 7.

The market-based projections

Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 9.6 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 6 market sources. That is the 22nd highest figure of the 208 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Christian McCaffrey is 8.7 PPR points a game off 1 market across 5 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Christian McCaffrey's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season so far

Through Week 8, Rico Dowdle has been on the field for 40 percent of PIT snaps, taken 37 percent of the carries, drawn 10 percent of the targets and had 27 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 1 of its 10 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 27 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have come 0.6 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

In Week 6 against TB he carried 7 times for 40 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 9 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against NO he carried 9 times for 41 yards, caught 6 of 6 targets for 45 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against CLE he carried 15 times for 56 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

Through Week 9, Christian McCaffrey has been on the field for 69 percent of SF snaps, taken 46 percent of the carries, drawn 20 percent of the targets and had 37 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 11 of the offence's 57 third down targets, had 14 of its 28 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 30 two minute targets.

His 45 targets have averaged 2.8 air yards.

In Week 6 against WAS he carried 16 times for 64 yards, caught 9 of 10 targets for 53 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

In Week 7 against ATL he carried 7 times for 39 yards, caught 6 of 7 targets for 61 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 9 against LV he carried 18 times for 68 yards, caught 2 of 3 targets for 19 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Rico Dowdle played 17 games and scored 216.3 PPR points, 12.7 a game, finishing RB18.

He carried 236 times for 1076 yards and 6 touchdowns, and caught 39 of 50 targets for 297 more yards.

That came to 13.9 carries a game at 4.6 yards a carry and 2.3 catches a game.

He was on the field for 56 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Christian McCaffrey played 17 games and scored 416.6 PPR points, 24.5 a game, finishing RB1.

He carried 311 times for 1202 yards and 10 touchdowns, and caught 102 of 129 targets for 924 more yards.

That came to 18.3 carries a game at 3.9 yards a carry and 6.0 catches a game.

He was on the field for 83 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Head to head

In 2025 Christian McCaffrey scored 24.5 PPR points a game and Rico Dowdle 12.7, 11.8 a game between them.

Rico Dowdle finished RB18 that year and Christian McCaffrey RB1.

Christian McCaffrey had 75 more carries than Rico Dowdle, 311 to 236.

Christian McCaffrey had 63 more catches than Rico Dowdle, 102 to 39.

This season Christian McCaffrey holds the bigger snap share, 69 percent against 40 percent.

This season Christian McCaffrey holds the bigger share of the carries, 46 percent against 37 percent.

Byes and availability

Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9 and Christian McCaffrey in Week 8, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Christian McCaffrey has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.