Tez Johnson or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 5?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Tez Johnson: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 164th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 174th overall on the rest of his evidence.

What the player markets price

The player markets price Tez Johnson at 3.7 PPR points a game, built from 4 markets across 17 market sources. That is the 164th highest figure of the 184 players the market prices.

The market has Rico Dowdle at 2.9 PPR points a game off 1 market across 6 market sources. That is 30 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 4, Tez Johnson has been on the field for 33 percent of TB snaps, drawn 7 percent of the targets and had 6 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 3 of the offence's 32 third down targets, had 0 of its 2 chances inside the five and seen 3 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 9 targets have averaged 25.0 air yards.

In Week 2 against CLE he caught 1 of 4 targets for 49 yards and did not score.

In Week 3 against MIN he caught 1 of 2 targets for 8 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against GB he carried 1 time for 10 yards, caught 2 of 2 targets for 17 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 Tez Johnson played 16 games and scored 92.4 PPR points, 5.8 a game, finishing WR67.

He caught 28 of 44 targets for 322 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 4 red zone targets.

That came to 2.8 targets a game, a 64 percent catch rate and 11.5 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 47 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 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Rico Dowdle scored 12.7 PPR points a game and Tez Johnson 5.8, 6.9 a game between them.

Tez Johnson finished WR67 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Tez Johnson 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 Tez Johnson.

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.