In just his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, running back Rico Dowdle could make NFL history.
Dowdle is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Mike McCarthy was his coach in 2024 with the Dallas Cowboys, and the two are reunited in Pittsburgh. With McCarthy out of the league last year, Dowdle posted another 1,000-yard campaign with the Carolina Panthers. His year was highlighted by two sizzling performances in Week 5 (206 yards) and Week 6 (183 yards).
Now, Dowdle has a chance for a third-straight 1,000-yard rushing season in Pittsburgh. If that happens, he’ll have done something no other player ever has.
As Josh Carney asked and I researched during and after Monday’s podcast, Dowdle would become the first player ever to rush for 1,000 yards in three straight seasons with three different teams.
In history, 103 players have rushed for 1,000 or more yards in three seasons of their career. None have done so consecutively for three different teams.
Two came close. Garrison Hearst, who briefly shone in the 1990s and early 2000s (the first player to ever grace Madden’s cover), rushed for 1,070 yards for the Arizona Cardinals in 1995. In 1997, he posted 1,019 yards with the San Francisco 49ers. But he fell just shy with 847 yards in 1996, his lone season with the Cincinnati Bengals. That would’ve been three in a row, but alas, he fell short.
DeMarco Murray had a similar experience. In 2014, he led the league with more than 1,800 rushing yards for the Dallas Cowboys. He notched 1,287 yards with the Tennessee Titans in 2016, playing 1A to Derrick Henry’s 1B. In between, he tallied 702 rushing yards for the Philadelphia Eagles, but came 298 yards shy of a 1,000-yard campaign.
That gives Dowdle the chance to be first.
Can he do it? Health is an obvious enough concern. Dowdle must play nearly the entire season to have a chance. Even missing three games will likely derail his chances. Dowdle struggled with injuries early in his career but has missed just one game over the past two seasons.
If Jaylen Warren and Dowdle are healthy, the Steelers’ division of carries will be critical. Pittsburgh claims an even split, but most teams say that during the spring. If Dowdle finds early success, the offense may ride the hot hand.
Over the past two seasons, Dowdle’s carries have nearly been identical: 235 in 2024, 236 in 2025. Can he achieve the same in 2026? Over 17 games, that works out to 13.8 per game. This number seems attainable. That would require a healthy 4.6 yards per carry average, but Kenneth Gainwell reached 4.7 last year, while Warren finished at 4.5.
The point is, Dowdle has a legitimate chance to reach 1,000 yards. If so, he’ll likely anchor Pittsburgh’s ground game. And he’ll definitely make NFL history.