Should I start Drake Maye or Rico Dowdle in Week 7?

The market-based projections

Drake Maye's market-based projection is 19.5 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 3rd highest figure of the 183 players with a market-based projection.

Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 8.0 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 12 market sources. That is the 45th highest figure of the 183 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Drake Maye, and the board ranks him 42nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rico Dowdle, and the board ranks him 40th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season through Week 6

Through Week 6, Drake Maye has been on the field for 97 percent of NE snaps, dropped back 214 times and thrown 9.0 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 31 of 214 dropbacks and scrambled 20 times.

In Week 4 against BUF he completed 22 of 37 passes for 269 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 6 times for 56 yards.

In Week 5 against LV he completed 26 of 34 passes for 374 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 4 times for 29 yards.

In Week 6 against NYJ he completed 18 of 32 passes for 235 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 25 yards.

Through Week 6, Rico Dowdle has been on the field for 36 percent of PIT snaps, taken 35 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 19 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 30 third down targets, had 0 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 17 two minute targets.

His 11 targets have come 1 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

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.

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

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Drake Maye played 17 games and scored 360.0 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing QB2.

He threw for 4394 yards on 492 attempts with 31 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, and ran for 450 yards and 4 touchdowns.

That came to 28.9 attempts a game at 8.9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

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.

Both were available for 17 games that season.

Side by side

In 2025 Drake Maye scored 21.2 PPR points a game and Rico Dowdle 12.7, 8.5 a game between them.

Drake Maye finished QB2 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Drake Maye is a quarterback and Rico Dowdle a running back, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Drake Maye is off in Week 11 and Rico Dowdle in Week 9, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

11.5 points a game is the entire case. The market restates it every week, and a line that moves moves the order with it.

The draft market is the half that is missing: when live drafts hold these two again they can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the drafts rather than the market-based projection when they do.