Zachariah Branch or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Zachariah Branch: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 115th overall on the rest of his evidence.

Drafters have formed no consensus on Rico Dowdle: he carries no ADP, and the board ranks him 116th overall on the rest of his evidence.

What the player markets price

The player markets price Zachariah Branch at 3.2 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 13 market sources. That is the 114th highest figure of the 145 players the market prices.

The market has Rico Dowdle at 2.2 PPR points a game off 1 market across 1 market source. 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 5, Zachariah Branch has been on the field for 22 percent of ATL snaps, drawn 6 percent of the targets and had 0 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 2 of the offence's 40 third down targets, had 0 of its 12 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 16 two minute targets.

His 8 targets have averaged 0.3 air yards.

In Week 3 against GB he caught 1 of 2 targets for 7 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against NO he caught 2 of 2 targets for 10 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against BAL he caught 2 of 2 targets for 15 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

Zachariah Branch is a rookie, so there is no NFL season behind him to price him against.

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.

Side by side

Zachariah Branch 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 Zachariah Branch.

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.