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It is a fine line, really, between looking at the available evidence and making a reasonable inference on one hand and simply talking oneself into having faith in the best-case scenario on the other. When it comes to the Cowboys running game, maybe any scrap of positivity can be taken for wishful thinking.
Or maybe not. Maybe, instead of the Cowboys’ running game having taken the massive step backward many seem to think it’s taken, maybe the real answer has been under our noses all this time—maybe this is just Rico Dowdle’s time to shine.
There has been a groundswell of optimism from within Cowboys Nation around what has been labeled the weakest running back room in the NFL (by Pro Football Focus and others). Most of that optimism centers on the possibility that it is not retread veteran Ezekiel Elliott who will make or break this grouping.
It’s Dowdle, who will—perhaps sooner rather than later—nudge aside all members of the team’s so-called running back “committee” and be the Cowboys’ true RB1.
Cowboys to Get 1,000 Yards From RB?
That is the sentiment at the podcast “Locked on Cowboys,” from a segment this week entitled, “6 BOLD Predictions For 2024 Dallas Cowboys Including Pro Bowl RB Rico Dowdle?!?” And while host Marcus Mosher did not go so far as to actually predict Dowdle making a Pro Bowl, he and fellow host Landon McCool did suggest that Dowdle is headed toward a 1,000-yard season.
That would match the production from last year’s RB1, Tony Pollard, who put up 1,005 yards on 252 carries. It would man that Dowdle nudges aside Elliott—not to mention newly signed Dalvin Cook—and seizes the reins as the featured guy in the Cowboys backfield.
“My bold prediction is I think that Rico Dowdle gets 1,000 yards rushing this year,” Mosher said. “Now, we’ll see about the touchdowns because I have a feeling Zeke is going to gobble up some touchdowns but I do think Rico Dowdle is going to end up at some point, maybe it’s Week 1, maybe it’s Week 5, becoming the clear-cut RB1 in Dallas and being the RB1 in Dallas means you’re going to be a 1,000-yard running back.”
Rico Dowdle Has Extensive Injury History
Now, to be sure, the reason this take is considered “bold” is because it does require some revisionist history. Dowdle, remember, is only 26 but has been in the NFL since the Cowboys signed him as an undrafted free agent from South Carolina in 2020. In four seasons, he has just 96 carries and 385 total yards.
Health has been a big factor: He missed all of 2021 with a hip injury and missed 12 games in 2022 with an ankle injury.
Dowdle did show some flashes last season, and notched his best game in a Week 9 drubbing of the Giants, in which he ran for 79 yards on 12 carries. That looked like it might be the springboard to a bigger role for Dowdle, but he had only 46 carries in the final eight weeks of the year, for 149 yards (3.6 yards per carry).
Still, Cowboys fans are summoning the faith in Dowdle, as McCool highlighted:
“We spent a lot of the offseason talking about the running back room, and I think the rest of the NFL media, fandom has spent a lot of the offseason talking about the Cowboys running back room,” he said. “The difference between our concern and the national media’s concern is that, I have full faith in Rico Dowdle.
“I expect him to be running back 1—it’s everything around Rico Dowdle that I’m concerned about, not Rico Dowdle. That’s something that’s been lost in a lot of these takes.”
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