Keenan Allen or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 5?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Keenan Allen: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 128th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 129th overall on the rest of his evidence.

What the player markets price

The player markets price Keenan Allen at 7.8 PPR points a game, built from 4 markets across 14 market sources. That is the 126th highest figure of the 218 players the market prices.

The market has Rico Dowdle at 8.2 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 13 market sources. That is 70 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 3, Keenan Allen has been on the field for 64 percent of IND snaps, drawn 21 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 7 of the offence's 20 third down targets, had 0 of its 6 chances inside the five and seen 5 of its 11 two minute targets.

His 20 targets have averaged 6.2 air yards.

In Week 1 against BAL he caught 6 of 6 targets for 32 yards and did not score.

In Week 2 against KC he caught 1 of 5 targets for 5 yards and did not score.

In Week 3 against HOU he caught 6 of 9 targets for 63 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 Keenan Allen played 17 games and scored 182.7 PPR points, 10.7 a game, finishing WR29.

He caught 81 of 122 targets for 777 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 15 red zone targets.

That came to 7.2 targets a game, a 66 percent catch rate and 9.6 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 55 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 Keenan Allen 10.7, 2.0 a game between them.

Keenan Allen finished WR29 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Keenan Allen 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

Keenan Allen is off in Week 13 and Rico Dowdle in Week 9, so either can cover the other's bye.

Keenan Allen is listed as questionable on the injury report.

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.