Cowboys made right choice in picking Javonte Williams over Rico Dowdle, here’s why

FRISCO, Texas — Week six of the 2025 NFL season brings a referendum on the Dallas Cowboys’ free agent decision-making at the running back position.

Dallas saw running back Rico Dowdle, now 27, become the first undrafted player in team history to rush for over 1,000 yards in 2024, and despite this, allowed him to enter free agency to sign a one-year contract worth $2.75 million with the Carolina Panthers in 2025. The Cowboys prepare to face Dowdle and the Panthers in Week 6, a week after being named NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 5. Carolina’s 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins. In most cases, a team letting a player like Dowdle walk for relative pennies would feel some sort of regret.

That’s not the case for the Cowboys as 25-year-old Javonte Williams, whom they signed to a one-year, $3 million deal to replace Dowdle in free agency, is the NFL’s third-leading rusher (447 yards) through five weeks this season. Williams himself didn’t know Dowdle but had heard of him, both having grown up in North Carolina and Williams seeing him in high school recruiting rankings.

“It’s tough. Rico is a very talented runner, great vision. He runs hard. The guys that have been around him, we have a ton of new faces, they don’t realize the power that he has. Rico was a guy that we considered keeping, and we kind of fell in love with Javonte,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday. “Are we right? I don’t know. Javonte is doing great. Rico is doing great, but the Carolina Panthers are a damn good running team, and it’s not just because of Rico. It’s because of their offensive line, but I’m proud of Rico.”

So why did Dallas choose to take the plunge on Williams despite a serious knee injury (a torn ACL and LCL) in 2022 which limited his effectiveness? Schottenheimer and Co. fell in love with his style of play on tape, and they projected a return to form three years after the injury. Love is mutual.

“I wanted to come [here] “They probably wanted me that much, but I mean, everything worked out,” Williams said Thursday. “I’m glad that’s the case. I’m glad I came. I’m glad to have the teammates that I have.”

“I’m the president of the Javonte fan club,” Schottenheimer said last Friday. “Just because of the way he plays. … Javonte is a guy that doesn’t need huge windows. … Javonte has the ability to cut quickly and find a seam, or if it’s not there, he’ll drop his shoulders and drive the stake two, three, four yards. What I like about Javonte is he gets stronger as the game goes on.”

The Cowboys’ gamble paid off early: Williams’ 5.7 yards per carry are fourth-best in the NFL, his five rushing touchdowns are tied for second in the league and he leads the NFL in first downs with 25. Nearly a third of Williams’ carries, 31.6 percent (25 of 79), are for first downs. This is the highest rate in the league among 30 players with at least 45 carries this season.

“Yeah, I think it was number one, the physical style of play definitely jumps out on film. The quickness and the ability to make people miss. … It was really cool for him to have the longest of his career. [66 yards] yesterday,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “It was a hell of a race. The defensive end closed down and he was unblocked. And he has the strength to get out of it and then the level of the pad. We never really compared ourselves to anyone. He’s his own player. I think I’ve said it before, I’m not surprised at how well he’s playing. We saw him at training camp. Really, you go back, you watch the Denver film. There were many pieces of the same type that appeared in the film. Sometimes when you come back from an injury, it takes a little longer, especially in this position. »

*Among 30 players with at least 45 races this season

Williams actually encountered Cowboys replacement left tackle Nate Thomas before bouncing off him to snatch a career-long 66-yard run late in the first half against the Jets in Week 5. Dallas took a 23-3 lead with 19 seconds left in the first half on the very next play, a 1-yard touchdown to tight end Jake Ferguson.

“I didn’t really recognize it at first. I was just trying to see what was going on, but if that’s what it takes for him to run 70 or 80 yards, I wouldn’t mind getting hit every once in a while if it means he gets there,” Thomas said Monday.

Thomas, a 2024 seventh-round pick who started at left tackle in place of the injured Tyler Guyton (concussion) last week, said he can hear a sort of sound effect every time Williams runs with the football, something that changes depending on the situation.

“Oh absolutely. You definitely hear something. It depends what it is. Sometimes you can hear it, and it goes right past you, it’s coom. Or if it hits someone, it’s the pads that bang,” Thomas said.

Tight end Jake Ferguson described Williams’ running style in one word: “DAWG.” Prescott further developed the bulldozer calculated by Williams.

“He knows where the offensive line is blocking, and he knows where the weak point of the defense is. You can see it when it comes to setting things up and coming back that way,” quarterback Dak Prescott said Thursday. “Super physical but intelligent. He’s not just a bull in a Chinese store. He does it in a very calculated way.”

Dallas began its final drive of the first half in New York in Week 5 down alone 33 with 35 seconds left, so Schottenheimer was calculating Williams’ first down as a test to see if he would decide to use timeouts or let the half run out with the Cowboys leading 17-3. Williams’ 66-yard explosion obviously changed the head coach’s calculation.

“It’s kind of like you can’t put your toe in the water and say, ‘Hey, let’s see if this happens.’ It was not required to travel sixty meters. It wasn’t called that,” Schottenheimer said. “And then when Javonte started to break, it was like, ‘Okay, good, that’s great. Okay, you might not score, please go out of bounds.’ And he did it. It shows the IQ, the football IQ of Javonte. At that point, we were obviously very comfortable because we knew we were going to make some shots in the end zone. But if this race lasts a meter or two, I’d be lying if I said we were going to last two minutes. But if it had lasted 10, 12, 15, we would have gone.”

Williams made two tackles during his 66-yard burst Sunday, not counting his friendly throw to Thomas. It’s a style of play that makes his offensive linemen smile ear to ear when asked to describe it. The 25-year-old’s 326 rushing yards after contact this season are second-most in the NFL behind Indianapolis Colts All-Pro Jonathan Taylor’s 346.

“You don’t see how many people he hits, and [he] just look at them. Yes, he’s very violent, but he definitely gains a lot of yards after contact,” Thomas said.

The best example of Williams’ balance of contact came on third-and-1 early in the second quarter, where he appeared to get stuffed on a shotgun blast up the middle. Instead of losing two or three yards, Williams continued to struggle until he rushed forward to move the chains for a first down.

“That great blocked play? That great play, that’s exactly how we built it. You don’t block the defensive end and then a guy crosses [Jake Ferguson’s] face and there is no one there. This one? Yeah, I remember that. … It was one of my best decisions of the day,” Schottenheimer said sarcastically. … “It was just an incredible, incredible effort from a fiery, not saying much, ultra competitive player. It was one of the best one and a half meter races I have ever seen. »

How physical is Williams? Physical enough that Schottenheimer became comfortable enough to compare him to a couple of Pro Bowlers he coached at other stops: Michael Turner and Thomas Jones.

“His running style is different, so I mean, I hate to compare players. I was with Michael Turner in San Diego, he ran with that physical style. Thomas Jones was another very physical runner. Shonn Green. But yeah, Javonte’s ability to drop his pads, hit with power and with his legs, it’s unique,” Schottenheimer said. “But if you look at him and what he does before practice, getting ready for practice, after practice, working on his leg strength and things like that, it’s no surprise that he bounced back the way he did, and was as effective as he was.”

Another key to Williams’ effectiveness is Dallas’ decision to hold him out of the 2025 preseason completely as he prepared to return to full strength following a torn ACL and LCL.

“It goes back to the importance of practice. As we talked about a lot in training camp, you get a great job against our defense. We saw what we see now without the tackling part. We saw it every day in practice against our defense. The decisiveness, the quickness, the ability to make people miss, the ability to get through people,” Schottenheimer said Monday.

Williams’ career high in carries is 217, a number he fell back in 2017, but with 79 carries in five games, he is on pace to shatter that number with around 269 carries this season. That doesn’t matter in Schottenheimer’s mind: Williams will remain “the bell cow.”

“We’re aware of it. I think it’s a situation where you never want to focus on what could happen, but it’s a violent position. He’s playing very well,” Schottenheimer said. … “Javonte is the bell cow, and he’s earned it. We believe in him and that’s how we’ll approach him going forward.”

This is music to Williams’ ears considering he was unsure about his footballing future in 2022 following his knee injury. Now he has become the Cowboys’ bell cow.

“No, there was a time when I thought it was going to be over, but I kept going,” Williams said. “The coaches have a lot of confidence in me. I love my teammates. … It takes time with injuries. I’m just happy to be back healthy.”