After losing Kenneth Gainwell in free agency to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Pittsburgh Steelers pivoted quickly at the running back position, landing Rico Dowdle on a two-year deal and reuniting him with first-year head coach Mike McCarthy.
The move strengthened the running back room. And based on the belief of many, it gives the Steelers a solid complementary piece to standout Jaylen Warren, who rushed for nearly 1,000 yards last season as the lead back, even with Gainwell winning the team MVP award.
But longtime Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly believes things will shift in the running backs room with the Dowdle addition.
“I think Dowdle’s going to get a little bit more of that [split]. I think he’ll be like a 60/40, maybe,” Kaboly said Monday on the 93.7 The Fan Morning Show of the Steelers’ running back room. “Warren’s been hurt a couple times as well, so I think you bring in Dowdle and you have a set plan for him. I don’t think it’s gonna be the old high school Dowdle or Warren, at least when Week 1 starts. I think it will be Rico just to bring him in, just for the fact that it’s a McCarthy guy, so to speak. They’re in a good situation.
“They do very similar things on the field, so they are interchangeable.”
Dowdle does have the familiarity with McCarthy, having spent some time with him in Dallas after being an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina. His breakout season in Dallas came in McCarthy’s final year with the Cowboys, rushing for 1,079 yards and two touchdowns in 2024.
McCarthy’s contract was not renewed after the 2024 season with the Cowboys, and Dowdle hit free agency. He spent one season with the Carolina Panthers, rushing for 1,076 yards and six touchdowns, putting him in a good spot entering free agency once again.
With McCarthy hired in Pittsburgh, it made sense that Dowdle would reunite with him. Though Dowdle and Warren have similar running styles, Warren is a better pass catcher out of the backfield, and Kaboly believes Dowdle’s toughness and his familiarity with McCarthy will lead to him handling the bulk of the work, at least in 2026.
“I’m quite interesting to see what Rico Dowdle does because he was good, what, two years in a row? And not so good the first couple of years,” Kaboly said. “What type of player are they really getting here? It’s gonna be interesting to see how he works out here.”
The Steelers signed him for relatively cheap, and he is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. He’s also stayed healthy in that span and brings a violent running style to Pittsburgh.
We’ll see how things shake out at running back, but putting Dowdle as the lead runner and pushing Warren back into that third-down role wouldn’t be a bad thing for the offense.
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