{"id":771294,"date":"2026-02-23T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:22:12","slug":"panthers-interested-in-rb-rico-dowdle-says-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/771294\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers interested in RB Rico Dowdle, says insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 23, 2026, 9:31 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> may run it back with their running backs. But there could be a catch.<\/p>\n

According to Joe Person of The Athletic, the Panthers are interested in a return for soon-to-be-free agent Rico Dowdle. Person, who previewed Carolina’s outlook<\/a> ahead of the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine on Monday, wrote the following:<\/p>\n

Dowdle failed to land a multiyear deal in free agency last year, but should find it this year after his second consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season. The Panthers have interest in bringing back Dowdle at the right price, although Dowdle said he wants to go to a team where he\u2019ll get the bulk of the carries after sharing the backfield with Chuba Hubbard last season.<\/p>\n

Dowdle, who signed<\/a> a one-year deal with the Panthers last spring, took over as the team’s starting running back for the majority of their 2025 campaign. The 27-year-old Gaffney, S.C. rushed for 1,076 yards and a career-high six touchdowns on 236 carries.<\/p>\n

As Person notes, Dowdle is seeking<\/a> a featured role for 2026\u2014an intention he made clear following Carolina’s wild-card loss<\/a> to the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> in January . . .<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Person also suggests that the impending return of 2024 second-round pick Jonathon Brooks and the presence of 2025 fourth-rounder Trevor Etienne will factor into the Panthers’ decision on Dowdle.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 23, 2026, 9:31 a.m. ET The Carolina Panthers may run it back with their running backs. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,97114,97115,95882,96059,97057,99268,95924,95888,95895,96684,95897,95899,97040,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-771294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","16":"tag-sstsnpanthers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","19":"tag-tagchuba-hubbard","20":"tag-tagjonathon-brooks","21":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","25":"tag-tagoverall-negative","26":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","27":"tag-tagrico-dowdle","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-tagtwitter","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116120633391630926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}