For the second straight fantasy football season, it’s looking like Rico Dowdle is going to be a league-winner. The Panthers RB went off again, spelling the injured Chuba Hubbard, posting a second straight game over 200+ total yards from scrimmage. Dowdle finished with 239 yards on 34 touches (four catches) and one score, somehow beating out Cam Skattebo for the top fantasy performance by a RB so far in Week 6 with 31.9 points.

Not to look too far ahead, but once Hubbard is healthy, Carolina’s backfield split will be an interesting one to break down. For now, we’ll look at some other key RB touch splits from Week 6 and what it means for fantasy football moving forward.

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Arizona Cardinals

It was the second straight week without both James Conner and Trey Benson in the backfield for the Cardinals. Last week, we saw Michael Carter dominate touches with 24 (five catches) while finishing atop the fantasy scoring among Arizona RBs with 15.8 points. This week looked very different. Emari Demercado was relegated to the bench mostly after his bonehead play in Week 5. But instead of Carter leading the backfield, it was Bam Knight, who scored a rushing TD for the second straight week.

Knight outtouched Carter 12-11 and had 54 total yards. Carter would end up finishing with more total yards (64) but the Cardinals gave more work to Knight. Assuming Benson doesn’t take longer to return, we get two more weeks with the Carter-Knight backfield split. Neither is totally reliable but have some value as FLEX options in deeper formats. The offense didn’t appear to lose much despite QB Kyler Murray being out and Marvin Harrison Jr. (concussion) leaving early on Sunday.

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Be sure to note, the Cardinals are on bye in Week 8 but have a good matchup vs. the Cowboys in Week 9, when Benson should still be out. That’s one of the reasons you’d want to add Carter or Knight off the wire.

Los Angeles Chargers

This was the most polarizing situation going into Week 6 with rookie RB Omarion Hampton placed on injured reserve. Hassan Haskins and Kimani Vidal were tasked with leading the backfield in L.A. and while many believed Haskins would get the majority of the work, it was Vidal who seized the opportunity thanks to a hot hand. He had a 38-yard run early on to set up a scoring drive and also added another burst play of 19 yards. Overall, Vidal would out-touch Haskins 21-7 and finish with 138 total yards and a receiving touchdown, good for 21.3 fantasy points.

It’s only one game but it would be surprising to see Vidal not lead the way in Week 7 vs. the Colts. It’s a tougher matchup on paper but the Chargers have no choice but to force the run given the limitations on the offensive line due to injury. Vidal showed us enough in Week 6 to trust him as a RB2/FLEX play in most formats. He won’t be a sure thing, but we know his ceiling is high and the talent is there. Hold onto Haskins just in case but he’s more difficult to trust in your lineup. Only start him in Week 7 if you’re desperate.

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New England Patriots

The Patriots lost RB Antonio Gibson to a season-ending injury after Week 5. So that condensed the backfield to a two-man rotation of Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson (with QB Drake Maye also working in on the ground). In what was supposed to be a good matchup in a competitive game, we saw neither Stevenson or Henderson perform well. Stevenson led with 13 touches to 10 for Henderson but only had 18 yards on 13 carries. Henderson wasn’t much better with nine carries for 27 yards (plus a nine-yard catch). Maye also had a lot of scrambles with nine carries for 28 yards.

Will there be weeks in which the Pats lean on the run and Stevenson/Henderson get there? Probably. But if you’re Josh McDaniels and Mike Vrabel, and you’re watching Maye make some of these throws, why even bother giving the ball to a fumble-prone back and a rookie? As long as Maye keeps this up, expect New England to throw to get it done on offense. The run game should be secondary. I wouldn’t rely on Stevenson or Henderson to be more than risky FLEX plays in most formats.

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Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers were on bye last week and Jaylen Warren had missed the previous week due to injury. So we were all interested to see how this backfield looked with Warren back and Kenneth Gainwell coming off that big game overseas. Things were a bit of a mess, however.

Warren finished with the most touches by a hair at 13 (two catches) but he only turned that into 63 total yards. Gainwell had just six carries for 22 yards but also caught all six of his targets for 14 yards. Coming off the bye, we saw rookie RB Kaleb Johnson involved with six carries for 15 yards. TE Jonnu Smith also randomly had a 10-yard carry, which almost tied for the longest run by a Steelers player on the day.

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This may have just been all game script and matchup. The Browns have a tough defense and the Steelers controlled most of the game. Warren is still the lead back and should be an OK RB2/FLEX play most weeks in better game environments. Gainwell could have some value in PPR formats as a deep FLEX play while Johnson can be left on the bench or waiver wire (though we could see him get more involved as the season progresses).