Panthers running back Rico Dowdle practices during the first day of minicamp in Charlotte, NC on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Shane Laws knew something was weird when the fans started to stream out from the stands and onto the field and zeroed in on one guy.
The head coach of A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville had seen a lot. But never this. At least, not quite like this. His Rockets had just hung tough but lost to Shelby High, one of the best high school football programs in the state, on Shelby’s home field. It was a shootout. 56-39.
At the center of the 2015 game was Laws’ quarterback, who’d thrown for 120 yards and rushed for 271 and five touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was a scramble after a snap flew 15 yards over his head. The senior quarterback was unstoppable. Unbelievable. His name was Rico Dowdle, and he’d go on to be a running back at South Carolina in college and a workhorse in the NFL who signed with the Carolina Panthers this offseason.
But when Dowdle was a mere 17-year-old, after one of the games of his life, a crowd started flocking to him after a game. And his coach, understandably, grew a bit concerned, protective.
“At first I’m kinda worried, ‘Like, what’s going on?’” Laws said. He then noticed something strange. “They were really coming out of the stands to stand next to him and to take a picture with him. Because they knew they’d seen something special.
“Now, this is at Shelby. And they’ve seen a lot of good high school football in Shelby. But these fans were coming out of the stands to shake his hand. And to take a picture with him. Because they thought, ‘Man, you’re going to be something one day. And I want to have that picture.’”
They were right. Dowdle would become something one day. He’d become many things.
Rico Dowdle, #5, a Panthers running back, reels in a throw during practice. The Carolina Panthers, in their second week of organized team activities, ran through drills on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at their practice facility in uptown Charlotte. John D. Simmons For the Observer
Today, Dowdle is a reserve running back for the Panthers, fresh off a 1,000-yard season with the Dallas Cowboys. The 27-year-old bruiser is expected to be part of one of the most formidable two-headed backfields in football this upcoming season. Both Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard are coming off 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and the duo is already being considered among the league’s best backfields — up there with the Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier duo in Atlanta, and the Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet pairing in Seattle, and the Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery team in Detroit.
But Dowdle is more than this. He’s someone who was recruited late out of high school (to the befuddlement of his high school coach). He’s someone who was underestimated again coming out of college and went undrafted, who battled injuries early in his NFL career before getting his first real shot in 2024 and turning that into a payday elsewhere.
Also:
“Around here, when he comes home, he’s a hero,” Laws said. “And it’s not just because he’s a great football player, even though some of the things I saw him do on the field were just crazy. I mean, you got 5,000 people at a high school football stadium, and they were just in awe of some of the things he could do.
“But the other thing is just the kind of person that he is, and the way he treated people.”
Laws mentioned a kid’s football camp A.C. Reynolds put on every year, and how “wherever he’d walk on the field, you’d see 15 or 20 elementary school kids right on his hip.”
“He’s a great football player, but he’s more than that,” Laws said. “He’s a fantastic person. And I’m glad he’s back home. Because it makes it easier for all of us who love him so much to see him play.”
Dwayne McLemore dmclemore@thestate.com
Rico Dowdle’s one year as a quarterback
Another distinction Dowdle holds:
He’s someone who still thinks about that season in the sun as a quarterback at A.C. Reynolds High School.
Last week, when asked about it after the first of three Panthers minicamp sessions, he smiled.
“I wish I stuck with it,” he told The Charlotte Observer.
Really?
“What you think?” he said. “Yeah, I wish I did.”
But you’ve made it so far as a running back —
“I’ve just watched how the NFL has changed,” Dowdle said. “You used to have a lot of pocket passers, but it’s turned into that dual threat quarterback who can run, too. I still think I can throw to this day.”
Plus you’re not getting beat up all the time ...
“I’m trying to tell you,” he said. He laughed. “Drop back the linebackers, and I got nothing but space. That’s more space for me. Drop back, take off running.”
Running back Rico Dowdle of AC Reynolds High in Asheville, NC, at the Shrine Bowl on Saturday at Wofford’s Gibbs Stadium in Spartanburg. Dwayne McLemore dmclemore@thestate.com
It’s tough to make your mind not wander. Dowdle was that good as a high school quarterback. According to Max Preps, he finished that 2015 regular season with 48 rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown and 10 passing touchdowns as a senior. He added on three more rushing scores in the playoffs, he said. That 48 touchdown total is tied for eighth-most in North Carolina high school football history, according to High School OT, behind guys like Charlotte Catholic and eventual UNC star Elijah Hood and former fourth-round draft pick Nyheim Hines.
Where he was special was his intellect, he and his old coach said. Dowdle could absorb the hand signals from the sideline and relay the call without much fret. It was a spread offense built on read-option variations that let Dowdle shine. His memory and processing ability helped him do that.
And he remembers everything.
He remembers that he only played four full games his senior season because the Rockets kept blowing everyone out. (The only two games they lost that season were at Shelby, who went on to become state champions, and against Weddington in the playoffs.)
He remembers how people finally woke up to his recruitment late — after-Christmas late — and that two schools even recruited him as a quarterback: Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. (He ended up going to South Carolina to play for Will Muschamp.)
South Carolina’s Rico Dowdle catches the ball at the Clemson v. South Carolina game in Columbia. Tracy Kimball The (Rock Hill) Herald
And for moments he doesn’t remember, he refers to Laws: the coach who accompanied him to every recruiting trip, who back in the day would swing by his house on Sundays and take him to church, who Dowdle still dubs as the “best coach in Western N.C.” (When I told him I’d try to track him down, he told me to just text him, and he spouted off Laws’ phone number off the top of his head.)
And Laws always has another story to tell.
“We were at Watauga one night,” Laws began, recalling Dowdle’s senior season once more. “It was right before the half. We got the ball at the 45 going in, and we called some kind of deep pass play because it was the only play we had left. It was like five seconds before going into half.”
Laws called a timeout. Gave Dowdle the call. Dowdle then told his coach that he’d act like he was going to throw the ball downfield then run it in, 45 yards out. The two had a bit of a heated exchange, Laws remembered.
“He then literally takes the snap, goes back like he’s going to throw it, and then takes off,” Laws said. “And I’m not kidding you, I have the tape: Nine of their 11 defensive players got their hands on him and he still scored.
“He’s jogging back off the field after we score, and I meet him at the hash. And I don’t know what to say. I don’t know whether to be mad, to be happy. But I’m just like, ‘This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.’ And he’s just got this big smile on his face.
“And he kinda pats me on the butt and says, ‘Coach I’m going to take care of you.’”
Dec 29, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Dallas Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle (23) against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Eric Hartline USA TODAY NETWORK
Rico Dowdle’s chip on his shoulder
In essence, the rest has taken care of itself.
Dowdle still has a chip on his shoulder from his late recruitment out of high school, his undrafted free agent emergence in the pros, his one-year deal in free agency despite a great season in 2024. The specifics of that deal in Carolina: one-year, $2.75 million, according to Over The Cap.
He still wears No. 5, his high school number because of Reggie Bush.
He still is a teammate people clearly love having around. His backfield mate Chuba Hubbard said as much last week: “Everyone’s cool in our room, and that’s a blessing. I don’t take that for granted.”
And he still wonders what it would be like being a quarterback.
So in another life, could Rico Dowdle be ... I don’t know ... Lamar Jackson?
“I could be somewhere in there,” Dowdle said. He shrugged and laughed. “I ain’t gonna say Lamar Jackson. But I definitely think I could get the job done.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
The Charlotte Observer
Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned five APSE Top 10 distinctions, most recently in the Long Features category in 2024. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription
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