Should I start Rico Dowdle or Pierre Strong Jr. in Week 7?
Updated Oct 21, 11:16 PM ET. Week 8 answers post Tuesday.
Latest
- : Rico Dowdle: Listed Questionable (Knee) (Sleeper injury feed)
Start Pierre Strong Jr.: 49 percent of the snaps and 33 percent of the carries over their last 3 games, against Rico Dowdle's 36 percent of the snaps and 35 percent of the carries. 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.
Should I drop Rico Dowdle for Pierre Strong Jr.?
Yes, on the rest of the season. Pierre Strong Jr. projects 63 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.3 a game over 10 games), Rico Dowdle 36 (3.6 a game over 10 games). Rico Dowdle is listed questionable.
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More fantasy football tools and rankings, all built from the same board.
Both players' season market-based projection, their usage this season and their last full season's numbers.
RB24 · PIT · bye 9
2025 vs rush yds line 6-11
- Market-based projection
- 7.7 pts a game
RB40 · GB · bye 11
- Overall rank
- 122
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The gap
- Board size315 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 67th overall on the rest of his evidence.
Live drafts hold no current pick on Pierre Strong Jr., and the board ranks him 122nd overall on the rest of his evidence.
The market-based projections
Rico Dowdle's market-based projection is 7.7 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 105th highest figure of the 214 players with a market-based projection.
The market has Pierre Strong Jr. at 4.0 PPR points a game off 2 markets across 13 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.
Pierre Strong Jr.'s projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.
This season through Week 6
Through Week 6, Rico Dowdle has been on the field for 36 percent of PIT snaps, taken 35 percent of the carries, drawn 9 percent of the targets and had 19 percent of the red zone chances.
He has taken 1 of the offence's 30 third down targets, had 0 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 17 two minute targets.
His 11 targets have come 1 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.
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.
In Week 6 against TB he carried 7 times for 40 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 9 yards and did not score.
Through Week 6, Pierre Strong Jr. has been on the field for 49 percent of GB snaps, taken 33 percent of the carries, drawn 14 percent of the targets and had 30 percent of the red zone chances.
He has taken 4 of the offence's 23 third down targets, had 1 of its 4 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 9 two minute targets.
His 10 targets have come 0.7 yards behind the line of scrimmage on average.
In Week 5 against CHI he carried 5 times for 7 yards, caught 3 of 4 targets for 11 yards and did not score.
In Week 6 against DAL he carried 11 times for 28 yards, caught 5 of 6 targets for 39 yards and did not score.
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.
The season feed carries no line for Pierre Strong Jr. in the last completed season.
Head to head
This season Pierre Strong Jr. holds the bigger snap share, 49 percent against 36 percent.
This season Rico Dowdle holds the bigger share of the carries, 35 percent against 33 percent.
Byes and availability
Rico Dowdle is off in Week 9 and Pierre Strong Jr. in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.
Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable on the injury report.
What would change the answer
Pierre Strong Jr. has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.
Drop or keep
Should I drop Rico Dowdle for Pierre Strong Jr.?
Yes, on the rest of the season. Pierre Strong Jr. projects 63 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.3 a game over 10 games), Rico Dowdle 36 (3.6 a game over 10 games). Rico Dowdle is listed questionable.
Should I drop Pierre Strong Jr. for Rico Dowdle?
No. Keep Pierre Strong Jr.: he projects 63 market-implied PPR points from Week 7 through Week 17 (6.3 a game over 10 games), Rico Dowdle 36 (3.6 a game over 10 games). Rico Dowdle is listed questionable.
Both players in full
Week 7 on the board
- Is Rico Dowdle playing Week 7?
- Is Pierre Strong Jr. playing Week 7?
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