Should I start Rico Dowdle or CJ Donaldson in Week 6?
Both players' season market-based projection, their usage this season and their last full season's numbers, with the draft market's own figures wherever it still has them.
Week 6 verdict
Start Rico Dowdle over CJ Donaldson
- Market projects
- 5.9
- fantasy pts
- TB D vs RB
- 16.9
- 5th fewest to RBs (2026)
- Snap share
- 42%
- Through Week 2
- Target share
- 9%
- Through Week 2
- Market projects
- 3.9
- fantasy pts
- Snap share
- 27%
- Through Week 5
- Target share
- 3%
- Through Week 5
Neither is in the consensus draft sample any more, and the market has not posted a whole projection for CJ Donaldson, so there is no current market order to give between these two. What follows is what each of them has already done.
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More fantasy football tools and rankings, all priced from the same board.
RB42 · PIT · bye 9
2025 vs rush yds line 6-11
- Market-based projection
- 5.9 pts a game
- Draft pick
- no consensus
RB49 · NO · bye unlisted
2026 vs anytime td line 0-5
- Overall rank
- 174
- Draft pick
- no consensus
- Tier
- 10
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Also deciding this week
The gap
- Pick differencenot comparable without a consensus on both
- Board size317 draftable players
Consensus average draft position has stopped updating on these two, so the figures that depend on it are left out rather than printed stale. The verdict line above restates the market price and nothing else.
Where the draft room stands
Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 151st overall on the rest of his evidence.
Drafters have formed no consensus on CJ Donaldson: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 174th overall on the rest of his evidence.
The market-based projections
Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 130th highest figure of the 198 players with a market-based projection.
The market-based projection for CJ Donaldson is 3.9 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 13 market sources. That is 70 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.
CJ Donaldson's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.
This season so far
Through Week 2, Rico Dowdle has been on the field for 42 percent of PIT snaps, taken 37 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.
He has taken 1 of the offence's 18 third down targets and seen 0 of its 9 two minute targets.
His 7 targets have averaged 0.9 air yards.
In Week 1 against ATL he carried 8 times for 15 yards, caught 2 of 5 targets for 6 yards and did not score.
In Week 2 against NE he carried 7 times for 22 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 22 yards and did not score.
Through Week 5, CJ Donaldson has been on the field for 27 percent of NO snaps, taken 10 percent of the carries, drawn 3 percent of the targets and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.
He has taken 0 of the offence's 48 third down targets, had 0 of its 13 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 31 two minute targets.
His 5 targets have averaged 2.4 air yards.
In Week 3 against LV he carried 1 time for 5 yards and did not score.
In Week 4 against ATL he carried 3 times for 18 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 5 yards and did not score.
In Week 5 against MIN he carried 4 times for 13 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 7 yards and did not score.
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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.
CJ Donaldson is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.
Head to head
This season Rico Dowdle holds the bigger snap share, 42 percent against 27 percent.
This season Rico Dowdle holds the bigger share of the carries, 37 percent against 10 percent.
Byes and availability
Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9. No bye is listed for CJ Donaldson.
Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable on the injury report.
What would change the answer
CJ Donaldson is only part priced, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.
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