FRISCO, Texas — Entering his fourth NFL season, running back Rico Dowdle is set to take on a big role in the running game behind starter Tony Pollard starting with next week's season opener in New York.
While a role as RB2 can be just as prominent at times as it can be complimentary, Dowdle is ready to do anything needed to reach the ultimate team goal.
"Just coming in trying to do what I can do to help win games," Dowdle said. "Finding a role in the offense, I've been here four years so I'm definitely trying to find a role to see what I can do to help the team win. I'm looking forward to it because I haven't really been out there since I've been here."
Working alongside Tony Pollard is not something that Dowdle is a stranger to, as he's looking forward to feeding off of the newly minted starter during the season.
Even though Dowdle's NFL experience has been limited as a result of injuries, he did have one game in his rookie season against San Francisco that he was able to back up Pollard for with Ezekiel Elliott missing the game.
"We definitely had good chemistry," Dowdle recounts from that win against the 49ers. "Communicating what looks we saw when we come out, helping each other out, saying what we should've did or could've did. Just feeding off each other and our feedback."
This time around will be a little bit different with new faces alongside both Dowdle and Pollard with Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke bringing their own unique skillsets to the offense.
"We got a bunch of different type of styles and guys in there," he said. "I think for us, it'll help us going in there with different looks and just messing the defense up. I think we can also all do it all, some guys just excel at some things more than others."
"They can't gameplan for just one type of style in there. It's multiple, they have to be ready for many different types."
Dowdle has preached since the beginning of training camp that the opportunity at being the RB2 was the biggest of his NFL career. Now with that in hand, that opportunity has taken on a much bigger scale.
"This is the biggest opportunity of my life just coming in and making the team," he said. "Now it's the biggest opportunity of my life to go out there and show what I can do in the National Football League."
