Fantasy Football Buy, Sell, or Hold: Evaluating Rico Dowdle's Rest of Season Outlook
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Rico Dowdle was the best waiver wire pickup of Week 5. In fact, he may have been the best waiver wire pickup of the season. Give the explosive effort that Dowdle put together in Week 5, it will beg the question as to whether or not he should be overtaking Chuba Hubbard at some point. That may be an over-confident take, but it is not irrational. The Panthers may be looking up, but there are questions to be answered and today, we will solve them.
Dowdle vs Hubbard: Statistical Breakdown
His season definitely got boosted in Week 5, but Dowdle is performing very well across his season thus far. He has: 51 Rushes, 289 Yards, 2 Touchdowns.
Chuba Hubbard has been lower-risk, lower-upside in his output this season. Hubbard has put together 53 Rushes, 217 Yards, 0 Touchdowns.
Outlook of Rico Dowdle
The Panthers have said that Dowdle is going to be a key piece of this offense. His signing adds a dynamic pass-catching ability to this backfield and that promotes the output of this offense tremendously. He only signed for 1-Year $2.7 Million, but the fact that Carolina signed him shows that they saw great use for him. Expect that to maintain to be the case.
Dowdle vs Hubbard
On a per game basis, prior to Week 5, Hubbard had a 2-to-1 advantage over Dowdle in carries (13.25-to-7.0). I would not anticipate Hubbard to lose his job by any means, but with success comes attention. After a Week 5 breakout, I could expect this split to close in a little bit. In my own estimation, I could see to 70-30 split approach on 60-40, if not eventually closer. Of course, Dowdle has rising stock.
Prior to Week 5, Hubbard had been the 19th ranked running back in fantasy football. Dowdle was the RB51. This all fits given their snap-splits. That has Hubbard as an RB2 while Dowdle was a league stash with handcuff upside.
Buy, Sell, or Hold: Rico Dowdle
Panthers OL and Dowdle deserve credit, but this is some of the worst run defense you will see from a professional team. Not getting off blocks, multiple defenders in the same gap, poor tackling pic.twitter.com/NVqs1B11QB
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) October 6, 2025
Our purpose today is to value Dowdle. I would say that he has a moderately increased valuation going forward. Between his success and the Panthers seemingly evolving offense, I could see Dowdle improve into RB30-40 range.
They key here is to value the handcuff value of Dowdle. Surely, if Hubbard misses more time, Dowdle is an RB2 himself with clear weekly RB1 upside.
Hubbard has been extremely healthy through his career up until the end of 2024. Hubbard was sidelined at the end of the year due to calf and knee injuries. Sure enough, he missed Week 5 with a calf injury. It is not clear if this was related to last year, but you can definitely speculate that it was. Being a soft-tissue matter, Hubbard could carry moderate risk throughout the season. A calf is not easily healed in a running back.
Dowdle is worth a hold, however, if you can sell him for above RB35, or so, value, then go ahead and sell him.
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.