Rico Dowdle or Cooper Kupp: 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 123rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Cooper Kupp: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 124th 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 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.

Cooper Kupp's market-based projection is 6.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 109th 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, Cooper Kupp has been on the field for 64 percent of SEA snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 41 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 20 two minute targets.

His 15 targets have averaged 9.2 air yards.

In Week 3 against WAS he caught 4 of 5 targets for 46 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 4 against LAC he caught 1 of 2 targets for 13 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against SF he caught 2 of 3 targets for 15 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 Cooper Kupp played 16 games and scored 117.3 PPR points, 7.3 a game, finishing WR53.

He caught 47 of 70 targets for 593 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 12 red zone targets.

That came to 4.4 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 12.6 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 76 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rico Dowdle was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Cooper Kupp 7.3, 5.4 a game between them.

Rico Dowdle finished RB18 and Cooper Kupp WR53, which are two different ladders.

Rico Dowdle is a running back and Cooper Kupp a wide receiver, 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 and Cooper Kupp in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.

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.