Rico Dowdle or Colby Parkinson: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 128th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Colby Parkinson: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 130th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Rico Dowdle is 2.6 PPR points a game off 1 market across 8 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.

Colby Parkinson's market-based projection is 4.5 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 120th highest figure of the 157 players with a market-based projection.

Rico Dowdle'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, Colby Parkinson has been on the field for 62 percent of LAR snaps, drawn 4 percent of the targets and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 37 third down targets, had 1 of its 14 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 25 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 2.3 air yards.

In Week 2 against NYG he caught 2 of 2 targets for 15 yards and did not score.

In Week 3 against DEN he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against BUF he caught 1 of 2 targets for 3 yards and did not score.

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 Colby Parkinson played 15 games and scored 129.8 PPR points, 8.7 a game, finishing TE17.

He caught 43 of 56 targets for 408 yards and 8 touchdowns, with 20 red zone targets.

That came to 3.7 targets a game, a 77 percent catch rate and 10 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 59 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rico Dowdle was available for 2 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Colby Parkinson 8.7, 4.1 a game between them.

Rico Dowdle finished RB18 and Colby Parkinson TE17, which are two different ladders.

Rico Dowdle is a running back and Colby Parkinson a tight end, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9. No bye is listed for Colby Parkinson.

Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

Rico Dowdle is only part priced, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.