Rico Dowdle start or sit: Week 9 fantasy football advice

The 4-4 Carolina Panthers head to Lambeau Field this Sunday as 13.5-point underdogs to take on the 5-1-1 Green Bay Packers. It looks as if they’ll get their starting quarterback Bryce Young back from his ankle injury, as he’s been practicing in full this week. Young hasn’t played well this year, but after Andy Dalton’s start last week, it’s probably best for the team that Young is back.

Another change many are expecting for the Panthers this week is at running back. After two absolutely huge games while Chuba Hubbard was out with an injury, Rico Dowdle was returned to his backup role, albeit with a bit more work than before. Since Hubbard’s return, Dowdle has continued to put up better stats than the incumbent and it sounds as if head coach Dave Canales will lean more toward Dowdle moving forward.

Below, we’ll go over Rico Dowdle’s outlook in fantasy football for Week 9.

Dowdle isn’t an undeniable talent that just needed touches, but there is no doubt he is playing some strong football right now. Canales hasn’t come out and explicitly said Dowdle would see a huge workload and the Packers have allowed the fewest fantasy points to running backs this season. There is a non-zero chance that he has a big dud this week, but there’s also a reasonable chance he’s the lead back and gets 15+ touches.

He’s probably only a flex play this week based on him likely taking over the lead role and having shown a good skill set so far this season as he takes on a strong defensive unit.

Start.

Start.