Should I start Rico Dowdle or James Conner in Week 8?

Updated Nov 3, 12:11 AM ET. Week 9 answers post Tuesday.

Start Rico Dowdle: he has been on the field this season, 31 percent of the snaps, and James Conner has no snap on record yet. No market projection is posted on either of them this week, so this is a usage call, and a lower confidence one than a call made on a projection. What follows is what each of them has done.

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Neither man carries a season projection right now, so this is their usage this season and their last full season's numbers, side by side.

Rico Dowdle

RB · PIT · on bye this week

2026 vs carries line 3-2

Market-based projection: 9.0 pts a game Wk 8 price
Overall rank: 269

James Conner

RB · ARI · bye 14

Overall rank: 275

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The gap

Board size297 draftable players

Draft data is not current for these two, so the figures that depend on it are left out. The call above comes from each player's usage.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rico Dowdle, and the board ranks him 269th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on James Conner, and the board ranks him 275th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

No season market is posted for Rico Dowdle, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

No season market is posted for James Conner, so the only market valuing him on this page is the draft room.

Neither carries a posted market, so this page rests on the draft room and on what the two have already done.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Rico Dowdle has been on the field for 38 percent of PIT snaps, taken 37 percent of the carries, drawn 10 percent of the targets and had 27 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 1 of the offence's 39 third down targets, had 1 of its 10 chances inside the five and seen 2 of its 27 two minute targets.

His 17 targets have come 0.6 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.

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

In Week 7 against NO he carried 9 times for 41 yards, caught 6 of 6 targets for 45 yards and did not score.

In Week 8 against CLE he carried 15 times for 56 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

The usage feed holds no snap or target counts for James Conner this season.

Their 2025 seasons

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.

In 2025 James Conner played 3 games and scored 33.3 PPR points, 11.1 a game, finishing RB80.

He carried 32 times for 95 yards and 1 touchdown, and caught 8 of 9 targets for 38 more yards.

That came to 10.7 carries a game at 3.0 yards a carry and 2.7 catches a game.

He was on the field for 50 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rico Dowdle was available for 14 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and James Conner 11.1, 1.6 a game between them.

Rico Dowdle finished RB18 that year and James Conner RB80.

Rico Dowdle had 204 more carries than James Conner, 236 to 32.

Rico Dowdle had 31 more catches than James Conner, 39 to 8.

Byes and availability

Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9 and James Conner in Week 14, so either can cover the other's bye.

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