Rico Dowdle's Panthers Exit Could Backfire on Carolina in 2026

Dave Canales is in preparation for his third season as head coach of the Carolina Panthers. The team has an emerging passing game with three-year quarterback Bryce Young pulling the trigger, as well as a young and talented wideout room.

There’s 2025 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan, former undrafted free agent Jalen Coker, talented but perplexing Xavier Legette (a first-round pick in 2024), and promising 2026 third-round selection Chris Brazzell II from the University of Tennessee.

Panthers’ running game has been mediocre the past two seasons

In his first season in Charlotte, the team averaged 110.5 yards per game rushing, ranked 18th in the NFL. This past season, the Panthers ran for 116.3 yards per outing, finishing 19th in the league. Chuba Hubbard enjoyed a career campaign in 2024, rushing for 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns. In ’25, it was former Dallas Cowboys’ running back Rico Dowdle who carried the load with 1,076 yards and six TDs.

Now Hubbard is once again the leader of a running back group that includes Jonathon Brooks, limited by injuries the past two seasons, second-year pro Trevor Etienne, and AJ Dillon—late of the Philadelphia Eagles. As for Canales’s top running back this past season…

Former Panthers’ RB Rico Dowdle was a great pickup by the Steelers

“The Pittsburgh Steelers got one of the steals of the 2026 offseason with their signing of Rico Dowdle,” explained Alex Kay of Bleacher Report. “Despite coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, Dowdle agreed to a modest two-year, $12.3 million deal to take over the team's backfield.”

That’s a pretty economical contract for a player that has put together back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons with the Cowboys and Panthers, respectively, after not seeing a lot of action early in his NFL career. It makes you wonder if Canales and general manager Dan Morgan couldn’t have gotten a similar deal with the league’s eighth-leading rusher in 2025.

The Panthers could use a big year from former workhorse Chuba Hubbard

Hubbard is a proven commodity who actually ranks fourth in attempts (889) and fifth in both rushing yards (3,686) and rushing touchdowns (23) in the 31-season history of the franchise. That career year in 2024 ended after 15 games, and a midseason calf injury this past season actually opened the door for Dowdle to become the workhorse.

While Brad Idzik is still the offensive coordinator, he will now take over play-calling duties from Canales. It obviously remains to be seen if the ground attack will play a bigger role in Carolina’s offense, and the running game appeared to be somewhat of an afterthought in the second half of the season and the playoff loss to the Rams. If that’s the case, it will put a lot more pressure on Young.

Of course, if Hubbard regains his 2024 form, then Dowdle’s departure could very well become a moot point.

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