Should I start Jalen Royals or Rico Dowdle in Week 6?

The market-based projections

Jalen Royals's market-based projection is 6.4 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 122nd highest figure of the 200 players with a market-based projection.

Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 6.0 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 130th highest figure of the 200 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Jalen Royals: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 142nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 144th overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 4, Jalen Royals has been on the field for 31 percent of KC snaps, drawn 5 percent of the targets and had 3 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 25 third down targets, had 1 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 0 of its 12 two minute targets.

His 5 targets have averaged 5.8 air yards.

In Week 2 against IND he caught 2 of 2 targets for 6 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 3 against MIA he caught 1 of 1 target for 11 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against LV he caught 0 of 2 targets for 0 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 Jalen Royals played 7 games and scored 2.4 PPR points, 0.3 a game.

He caught 2 of 3 targets for 4 yards and 0 touchdowns, with 0 red zone targets.

That came to 0.4 targets a game, a 67 percent catch rate and 2.0 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 9 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.

Rico Dowdle was available for 10 games more.

Side by side

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Jalen Royals 0.3, 12.4 a game between them.

Jalen Royals is a wide receiver 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 Jalen Royals.

Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable on the injury report.

What would change the answer

0.3 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.