{"id":803733,"date":"2026-03-10T04:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T04:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/803733\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T04:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T04:37:15","slug":"steelers-signing-rb-rico-dowdle-to-two-year-12-25-million-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/803733\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers signing RB Rico Dowdle to two-year, $12.25 million deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/rico-dowdle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rico Dowdle<\/a>&#8216;s rushing to the Steel City.<\/p>\n<p>The now-former Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers 1,000-yard rusher is signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers on a two-year, $12.25 million deal, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Dowdle departs Charlotte after just one season, but his second in a row topping 1,000 yards and looks to fill a void left by <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/kenneth-gainwell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kenneth Gainwell<\/a> for the Steelers. Dowdle will also reunite with Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy, who was his HC in Dallas, including in his breakout 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Gainwell is <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/nfl-news-roundup-latest-league-updates-from-monday-march-9#buccaneers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">signing<\/a> with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, leaving a spot for Dowdle to fill alongside <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/jaylen-warren\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaylen Warren<\/a>. Ranked <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/top-101-nfl-free-agents-of-2026-who-are-the-best-players-available\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">82nd<\/a> on Gregg Rosenthal&#8217;s top 101 free agents list, Dowdle was the fourth-best <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/top-101-nfl-free-agents-of-2026-ranked-by-position-which-spots-have-most-least-depth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RB option<\/a> in the 2026 free-agent class, per Rosenthal.<\/p>\n<p>A member of the Dallas Cowboys roster from 2020-2024, Dowdle was largely underutilized before spring into action in 2024, when he rushed for 1,079 yards. He left to sign a <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/panthers-signing-former-cowboys-1-000-yard-rusher-rico-dowdle-to-one-year-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">one-year pact<\/a> with the Panthers last season, reaching 1,076 yards on a career-high 236 carries while rushing for six touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Having waned down the stretch after taking the RB1 reins from <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/chuba-hubbard\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chuba Hubbard<\/a>, Dowdle is now bound for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rico Dowdle&#8216;s rushing to the Steel City. The now-former Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers 1,000-yard rusher is signing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1227,260,257,7,4609,88,6,609,520,57,2360,7152,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-803733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-free-agency","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-no-minute","16":"tag-pittsburgh","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","19":"tag-rico-dowdle","20":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116203031671745851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803733","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=803733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}