Zay Flowers or Rico Dowdle: who should I start in Week 6?

Where the draft room stands

Drafters have formed no consensus on Zay Flowers: 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 market has Zay Flowers at 2.4 PPR points a game off 1 market across 8 market sources. That is 30 percent of what a wide receiver's price needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

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.

Zay Flowers's price is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season so far

Through Week 5, Zay Flowers has been on the field for 55 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 30 percent of the targets and had 11 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 6 of the offence's 26 third down targets, had 0 of its 21 chances inside the five and seen 6 of its 26 two minute targets.

His 31 targets have averaged 8.6 air yards.

In Week 3 against DAL he carried 1 time for 20 yards, caught 5 of 6 targets for 84 yards and did not score.

In Week 4 against TEN he caught 8 of 10 targets for 118 yards and scored 1 touchdown.

In Week 5 against ATL he carried 1 time for 13 yards, caught 8 of 9 targets for 53 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 Zay Flowers played 17 games and scored 243.3 PPR points, 14.3 a game, finishing WR7.

He caught 86 of 118 targets for 1211 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 10 red zone targets.

That came to 6.9 targets a game, a 73 percent catch rate and 14.1 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 86 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 Zay Flowers scored 14.3 PPR points a game and Rico Dowdle 12.7, 1.6 a game between them.

Zay Flowers finished WR7 and Rico Dowdle RB18, which are two different ladders.

Zay Flowers 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

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

Rico Dowdle is listed as out on the injury report.