Should I start Jacory Croskey-Merritt or Rico Dowdle in Week 6?

The market-based projections

Jacory Croskey-Merritt's market-based projection is 8.1 PPR points a game, built from 4 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 102nd highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 5.9 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 131st highest figure of the 199 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Jacory Croskey-Merritt: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 106th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 145th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 5, Jacory Croskey-Merritt has been on the field for 45 percent of WAS snaps, taken 46 percent of the carries, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 18 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 42 third down targets, had 1 of its 7 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 20 two minute targets.

His 7 targets have averaged 0.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against SEA he carried 19 times for 36 yards, caught 1 of 1 target for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against IND he carried 9 times for 15 yards, caught 2 of 4 targets for 35 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against NYG he carried 11 times for 82 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 Jacory Croskey-Merritt played 17 games and scored 140.3 PPR points, 8.3 a game, finishing RB33.

He carried 175 times for 805 yards and 8 touchdowns, and caught 9 of 13 targets for 68 more yards.

That came to 10.3 carries a game at 4.6 yards a carry and 0-1 catches a game.

He was on the field for 39 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.

Head to head

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Jacory Croskey-Merritt 8.3, 4.5 a game between them.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt finished RB33 that year and Rico Dowdle RB18.

Rico Dowdle had 61 more carries than Jacory Croskey-Merritt, 236 to 175.

Rico Dowdle had 30 more catches than Jacory Croskey-Merritt, 39 to 9.

This season Jacory Croskey-Merritt holds the bigger snap share, 45 percent against 42 percent.

This season Jacory Croskey-Merritt holds the bigger share of the carries, 46 percent against 37 percent.

Byes and availability

Jacory Croskey-Merritt is off in Week 7 and Rico Dowdle in Week 9, so either can cover the other's bye.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt is listed as questionable on the injury report.

Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

2.1 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 the consensus sample holds these two again it can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the sample rather than the market-based projection when it does.