Rico Dowdle's second-half surge in his first season as the lead Dallas running back gives the Cowboys some interesting things to consider in the offseason.
The fifth-year player didn't have any 100-yard games in his career before becoming the first undrafted back in 10 years with three in a row in Dallas' 30-14 victory over Carolina on Sunday.
As the Cowboys (6-8) enter the final three games with virtually no chance to extend a three-year playoff run, Dowdle is set to take an increasingly impressive highlight reel into free agency. NFC South-leading Tampa Bay (8-6) visits Sunday night.
The 26-year-old has reset his career high in each of the past three games, capped by 149 yards against the Panthers. Dowdle's only rushing touchdown of the season (he has three receiving) came in his first 100-yard game, a 27-20 Thanksgiving victory over the New York Giants.
“Touchdowns are the only thing I am missing right now, but this is definitely a great time right now considering these past three weeks,” said Dowdle, who has 880 yards rushing. “Those guys have been opening it up, and it’s been three good weeks.”
“Those guys” are the blockers who have been without seven-time All-Pro right guard Zack Martin the past four games. Martin just had season-ending ankle surgery.
Brock Hoffman replaced Martin and has since been forced to slide over the center with rookie Cooper Beebe sidelined by a concussion. Left tackle Chuma Edoga left the Carolina game with an ankle injury but returned and had to move to right guard when T.J. Bass injured his leg.
Dowdle started the season slowly, averaging 34 yards over the first four games, back when Ezekiel Elliott was still a much bigger part of the rotation. Elliott returned to the Cowboys after a season away from the team for which he won two rushing titles as the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft.
Now, Elliott is an afterthought for what's left of his time with the Cowboys, and possibly the NFL, as the Cowboys prepare to see what the market for Dowdle might look like.
Dowdle's future with the Cowboys could be tied to the draft as well. Dallas is trending toward the middle of the first round, so the question will be whether Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, the Heisman Trophy finalist who went to high school in the Dallas area, is still available.
The Cowboys have liked what Cooper Rush offers as a backup quarterback ever since he went 4-1 in 2022 filling in after Dak Prescott broke the thumb on his throwing hand in a season-opening loss.
After throwing a career-best three touchdown passes against the Panthers, Rush is 3-3 since Prescott's season-ending hamstring injury.
The Cowboys have won three of the past four, the lone loss coming against Cincinnati on a botched special teams play late, when their blocked punt could have put them in position for the victory.
Like Dowdle, Rush will be a free agent. There's a decent chance he will return since the Cowboys just signed Prescott to a $240 million, four-year extension.
The Cowboys are among the most-penalized teams in the NFL and were flagged a season-high 14 times against Carolina. Five of the Panthers' 16 first downs were by penalty.
WR CeeDee Lamb entered the Carolina game with just one 100-yard outing after having eight in his breakout 2023 All-Pro season. He had 104 yards before halftime against the Panthers and finished with 116.
Lamb has been steady all season while playing through a shoulder injury, getting at least 89 yards in seven games after ending a long holdout by signing a $136 million, four-year extension in August.
TE Luke Schoonmaker's role appears to have diminished again now that Jake Ferguson is back from a concussion. He had zero targets for the first time since early November. While Ferguson was out, Schoonmaker had the two most productive games in his two seasons with 56 and 55 yards.
The return of DE DeMarcus Lawrence this season is appearing unlikely. He's been out since Week 4 with a foot injury. There was no chance of him playing against Carolina, and the dim playoff outlook leaves little incentive to force anything with the 32-year-old. Lawrence is set for free agency.
Plus-6: Turnover margin for the Cowboys the past four games. Before that, they were among the worst in the NFL at minus-11.
The Cowboys are 4-0 on short rest this season, which means they're 2-8 on regular or extra rest. The next two weeks are regular rest before facing division leaders. After the Buccaneers visit, Dallas goes to Philadelphia. The Eagles are on the verge of clinching the NFC East, which the Cowboys won last season.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Dallas Cowboys safety Israel Mukuamu celebrates after an interception against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb catches a pass against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush passes against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Dallas Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle runs against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, announced Monday that she was resigning from the Cabinet.
It was a move that stunned the country and raised questions about how much longer the unpopular Trudeau can stay in his job.
Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister, said that Trudeau had told her Friday that he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and that he offered her another role in the Cabinet.
But she said in her resignation letter to the prime minister that the only “honest and viable path” was to leave the Cabinet.
“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland said.
Freeland and Trudeau disagreed about a two-month sales tax holiday and $250 Canadian ($175) checks to Canadians that were recently announced.
Freeland said that Canada is dealing with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose sweeping 25% tariffs and should eschew “costly political gimmicks" it can “ill afford.”
“Our country is facing a grave challenge,” Freeland said in the letter. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war.”
The resignation comes as Freeland, who chaired a Cabinet committee on U.S. relations, was set to deliver the fall economic statement and likely announce border security measures designed to help Canada avoid Trump's tariffs. The U.S. president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the numbers of migrants and drugs.
Trudeau has said that he plans on leading the Liberal Party into the next election, but there are some party members who don't want him to run for a fourth term. It wasn’t immediately clear what Freeland's resignation from the Cabinet means for Trudeau’s immediate future.
"This news has hit me really hard,” a shocked Transport Minister Anita Anand said. She added that she needed to digest it before commenting further.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the government is losing control at the worst possible time.
“Justin Trudeau has lost control, but he's hanging onto power,” Poilievre said.
“All this chaos, all this division, all this weakness is happening as our largest neighbor and closet ally is imposing 25% tariffs under a recently elected Trump with a strong mandate, a man who knows how to identify weakness."
No Canadian prime minister in more than a century has won four straight terms.
The federal election has to be held before October. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one major party in Parliament, because they don’t hold an outright majority themselves. If the opposition New Democratic Party, or NDP, pulls support, an election can be held at any time.
Trudeau channeled the star power of his father in 2015, when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity after almost a decade of Conservative Party rule. But the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is now in big trouble. Canadians have been frustrated by the rising cost of living and other issues like immigration increases following the country’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a country we have to project strength,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “It’s chaos right now up in Ottawa.”
Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and brought in a carbon tax intended to fight climate change.
Freeland said in the resignation letter that Canadians “know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end."
Freeland's resignation comes as Trudeau has been trying to recruit Mark Carney to join his government. Carney is the former head of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada.
He was so well regarded after helping Canada dodge the worst of the global economic crisis that the U.K. named him the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.
Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. It wasn't immediately clear if Carney has agreed to join Trudeau's Cabinet.
“This is quite a bombshell,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “Freeland was not only finance minister but also deputy prime minister and, until a couple of years ago, was seen as Trudeau’s heir as Liberal leader and prime minister.”
Wiseman said that leaks from the prime minister’s office suggest that she was a poor communicator and made Freeland’s status questionable.
“There was talk about her becoming foreign minister again and that would have been a good fit for her, but the stab in the back from the prime minister's office cast the die,” Wiseman said.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, also called it a political earthquake and not just because Freeland was the second most powerful official in government.
"Also because of how she resigned: by publishing a letter on social media that clearly criticizes the prime minister only hours before she was supposed to present the government’s fall economic statement,” Béland said.
“This is clearly a minority government on life support but, until now, the (opposition) NDP has rejected calls to pull the plug on it. It’s hard to know whether this resignation will force the NDP to rethink its strategy.”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh released a statement, but didn't say whether his party would vote to topple the government.
“While the Liberals fight with each other, I believe we should be fighting for Canadians jobs at risk from Donald Trump's tariffs,” Singh said in a statement.
“People deserve a government that fights for you for a change.”
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, right, and Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc arrive for a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers remarks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers remarks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
