Elijah Higgins or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 5?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Elijah Higgins: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 176th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 177th overall on the rest of his evidence.

What the player markets price

The player markets price Elijah Higgins at 3.0 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 15 market sources. That is the 166th highest figure of the 184 players the market prices.

The market has Rico Dowdle at 2.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a running back's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Rico Dowdle's price is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season so far

Through Week 4, Elijah Higgins has been on the field for 33 percent of ARI snaps, drawn 3 percent of the targets and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 0 of the offence's 37 third down targets, had 1 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 33 two minute targets.

His 5 targets have averaged 2.0 air yards.

In Week 2 against SEA he was not given the ball.

In Week 3 against SF he caught 3 of 3 targets for 20 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against NYG he caught 2 of 2 targets for 19 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

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.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Elijah Higgins played 17 games and scored 58.1 PPR points, 3.4 a game, finishing TE48.

He caught 30 of 37 targets for 301 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 2.2 targets a game, a 81 percent catch rate and 10.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 41 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 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Elijah Higgins 3.4, 9.3 a game between them.

Elijah Higgins finished TE48 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Elijah Higgins is a tight end 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

Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9. No bye is listed for Elijah Higgins.

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.