Start Rico Dowdle or CJ Donaldson? Week 6

Our Week 6 call

Start Rico Dowdle over CJ Donaldson in Week 6.

Market-based projections have Rico Dowdle at 5.9 points and CJ Donaldson at 3.9, a gap of 2.0. CJ Donaldson's number is scaled up from a partial market: not every stat the position needs is posted yet, so the rest is estimated from what is.

What the market projects

Player markets imply 5.9 fantasy points for Rico Dowdle, with 100 percent of the markets a RB needs posted.

The market-based projection for Rico Dowdle is 21 rushing yards, 8 receiving yards, 1-2 receptions and 0.3 touchdowns (13, 12, 12 and 13 market sources).

Player markets imply 3.9 fantasy points for CJ Donaldson, with 70 percent of the markets a RB needs posted.

The market-based projection for CJ Donaldson is 14 rushing yards and 0.2 touchdowns (12 and 13 market sources).

That puts Rico Dowdle 2.0 points ahead of CJ Donaldson on the market projections.

Week 6 matchups

Rico Dowdle and PIT visit TB on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.

TB allowed 16.9 fantasy points a game to RBs this season over 5 games, the 5th fewest in the league.

Running backs ran for 60 yards and 0.4 touchdowns a game against TB and caught passes for 36 more yards.

Injury status

Rico Dowdle is listed as questionable with a toe injury.

CJ Donaldson is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 6

Through Week 2, Rico Dowdle played 42 percent of PIT snaps, took 37 percent of the carries, drew 9 percent of the targets and had 17 percent of the red zone chances.

Rico Dowdle, Week 1 against ATL: 39 of 67 snaps, 8 carries for 15 yards, 5 targets and 2 catches for 6 yards.

Rico Dowdle, Week 2 against NE: 18 of 70 snaps, 7 carries for 22 yards, 2 targets and 2 catches for 22 yards.

Through Week 5, CJ Donaldson played 27 percent of NO snaps, took 10 percent of the carries, drew 3 percent of the targets and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

CJ Donaldson, Week 2 against BAL: 20 of 68 snaps, 1 carry for 2 yards, 0 targets and 0 catches for 0 yards.

CJ Donaldson, Week 3 against LV: 12 of 74 snaps, 1 carry for 5 yards, 0 targets and 0 catches for 0 yards.

CJ Donaldson, Week 4 against ATL: 28 of 74 snaps, 3 carries for 18 yards, 2 targets and 2 catches for 5 yards.

CJ Donaldson, Week 5 against MIN: 19 of 45 snaps, 4 carries for 13 yards, 1 target and 1 catch for 7 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Rico Dowdle played 17 games for CAR and scored 216.3 PPR points, 12.7 a game, finishing RB18.

He ran 236 times for 1076 yards and 6 touchdowns, and caught 39 of 50 targets for 297 yards.

He was on the field for 56 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

Rico Dowdle, Week 18 of 2025 against TB: 27 of 51 snaps, 7 carries for 10 yards, 2 targets and 2 catches for 20 yards, 3.0 PPR points.

Their other Week 6 calls

• Start Alvin Kamara over Rico Dowdle.
• Start Rico Dowdle over Chris Rodriguez Jr..
• Start Rico Dowdle over Corey Kiner.
• Start CJ Donaldson over AJ Dillon.
• Start Chris Rodriguez Jr. over CJ Donaldson.
• Start Corey Kiner over CJ Donaldson.