Jake Ferguson or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Jake Ferguson: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 113th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 115th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

Jake Ferguson's market-based projection is 7.8 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 107th highest figure of the 184 players with a market-based projection.

The market-based projection for Rico Dowdle is 6.3 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 12 market sources. That is 70 percent of what a running back's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a 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 5, Jake Ferguson has been on the field for 72 percent of DAL snaps, drawn 11 percent of the targets and had 8 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 46 third down targets, had 1 of its 22 chances inside the five and seen 4 of its 31 two minute targets.

His 21 targets have averaged 4.5 air yards.

In Week 3 against BAL he caught 3 of 5 targets for 23 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 4 against HOU he caught 3 of 4 targets for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against TB he caught 3 of 6 targets for 19 yards and did not score.

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 Jake Ferguson played 17 games and scored 188.1 PPR points, 11.1 a game, finishing TE5.

He caught 82 of 102 targets for 600 yards and 8 touchdowns, with 23 red zone targets.

That came to 6.0 targets a game, a 80 percent catch rate and 7.3 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 67 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 Jake Ferguson 11.1, 1.7 a game between them.

Jake Ferguson finished TE5 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Jake Ferguson 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 Jake Ferguson.

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.