Who Should I Start? Rico Dowdle or Keaton Mitchell

Monday, December 15, 1:15 PM

Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle rushed for 49 yards on 16 carries with one touchdown in Carolina's Week 15 loss to New Orleans on Sunday. He added five receiving yards on one reception and totaled 12.4 PPR points. Dowdle outperformed Chuba Hubbard, who registered 38 scrimmage yards and 4.8 PPR points. Despite the workload being mostly split between the two RBs, Dowdle logged the most snaps (60%). In Week 16, the Panthers will face their NFC South rival, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay ranked 16th in fantasy points per game allowed to the RB position in the last four weeks leading up to Week 15. Even though Dowdle has a middling matchup this week, he is still worth starting as an RB2 or flex option based on his volume. In his last five games, he has fewer than 16 carries once, and he averaged 15.4 carries per game.

Tuesday, December 16, 1:02 PM

Baltimore Ravens running back Keaton Mitchell is emerging as an explosive backfield complement to lead back Derrick Henry as the Ravens push for a playoff spot in 2025. Mitchell played a season-high 39% of the offensive snaps in Sunday's shutout victory over the Cincinnati Bengals and had a season-high eight carries for 66 yards (8.3 yards per carry). He was unable to haul in his only target in the passing game. Rasheen Ali found the end zone on a 16-yard reception, but the 23-year-old Mitchell had only three fewer carries than Henry on the day, and he now has 173 scrimmage yards and a touchdown in the last three contests. Injuries have slowed Mitchell down early in his NFL career, but the third-year back has always been explosive (7.1 yards per carry in 23 games) and is definitely worth a waiver-wire pickup going into a Week 16 date against the Patriots on Sunday night. Mitchell is rostered in only 3% of Yahoo leagues at the moment.