FRISCO, Texas — Running back Rico Dowdle spent five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys from 2020 to 2024, and he became the first undrafted player in team history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season in 2024.

Despite his breakout, Dallas opted to let the 27-year-old Dowdle depart in free agency on a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Carolina Panthers this past offseason after choosing to sign 25-year-old running back Javonte Williams to a one-year, $3 million contract.

Dowdle enters his Week 6 revenge game against the Cowboys red hot in multiple ways. On the field, he is entering Sunday afternoon in Charlotte fresh off the best performance of his career after rushing for 206 yards and a touchdown 12 carries, good for a nine yards per carry average. That effort in Carolina’s 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins earned him Week 5 NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. Postgame, he told reporters Dallas had to “buckle up” when facing him in Week 6.

“I know we’re going to have to buckle up. We’ll bring our seat belts, Rico, and buckle up,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said on Monday. “Can’t wait to see him, though.”

Dowdle said on Wednesday that he had a good relationship with Schottenheimer when he was in Dallas, but he didn’t back down from his postgame comments.

“Yeah, they have to buckle up, [I] stand on that,” Dowdle reiterated on Wednesday, via Carolina Blitz. “That was just meaning it’s going to be a very physical game from my end. I know from my end, I take a lot of pride in that: buckling the chinstraps up tight, and I will be coming.”

Dallas Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who spent the last nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers before being acquired in the trade that sent All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers, has never been a teammate of Dowdle’s. He took those comments at face value while also acknowledging the emotions that can bubble up when facing a player’s former team. Clark just did that himself when Dallas tied Green Bay 40-40 in Week 4.

“Man he got to back it up. I’m not much into talking. They ain’t play nobody like us,” Cowboys defensive tackle Kenny Clark said Wednesday. “We ain’t play them, so he’ll watch the film and see what he’s playing against. … Yeah, he can be emotional. I know he was coming off a 200-yard game, so he’s probably feeling really good. Yeah, it’s going to be a battle in the trenches for sure. [The] Trenches are going to win this game.”

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New Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens, who Dallas acquired in an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was bewildered by the comment.

“We are buckled up every week bro,” Pickens said on Wednesday. “I don’t really know what he meant by that. I just know we’re going to try to come out there and dominate and compete.”

Dallas defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa refused to directly acknowledge Dowdle’s comments beyond indicating he understood where the former Dallas running back was coming from.

“I definitely understand where he’s coming from in terms of him being here last year, but we’re approaching it the same way we approach every week. … It’s another championship opportunity,” Odighizuwa said on Wednesday. … “For sure, I definitely understand [where he’s coming from]. I’m not going to get into it, but I get where that came from.”

A number of Dowdle’s former offensive teammates didn’t mind his comments in the slightest despite the perception of them being “bulletin board material.”

“Everybody should talk their stuff, you feel me,” Cowboys All-Pro kick returner and wide receiver KaVontae Turpin said on Wednesday. “I feel like Rico was here last year, and I feel like he is ready to go against us. I don’t feel like that’s a bad comment or anything. I feel they should be ready, you feel me? I’m happy he feels like that. … He was here the last five years. … I feel like he wants to show us something, so I’m happy he’s feeling like that.”

“That’s cool. … Some people have fire in their heart. That’s cool,” Cowboys Pro Bowl tight end Jake Ferguson said on Thursday.

Quarterback Dak Prescott met Dowdle’s comments with dad jokes while revealing what he and his 2024 lead back discussed over text this week prior to the Week 6 showdown on Sunday in Charlotte.

“Good for Rico. I like Rico. I love Rico. I just texted him at the end of the last game, hell of a job rushing for 200. Told him ‘see him this week,'” Prescott said on Thursday. “So … I mean we have to [buckle up]. We’re getting on a plane. … He’s not going to be hitting me.”

Dowdle isn’t giving his former quarterback the silent treatment: he responded quickly and briefly.

“Appreciate it,” Prescott said when asked to divulge what Dowdle’s reply was. “Yeah, something like that. ‘Appreciate it, bro. See you then.'”

The concept of “bulletin board material” is just that for Dallas this week: his former teammates don’t see his comments as anything that would cause them to approach an NFL football game with any more passion, violence and energy than what already goes into being modern day gladiators on Sunday’s in the fall.

“Yeah, zero [impact]. For many guys in the locker room,  and obviously it’s been something in Rico, but I also don’t think he necessarily meant it personally to any of the guys in the locker room either, right? But I’ll tell you, those defensive guys in there, they’re going to beat themselves regardless,” Prescott said. “And whether you’re their friend or their teammate from a year ago or not, I take [safety] Donovan Wilson coming downhill to make a physical stop. I can tell you, any of those guys up front are trying to make physical tackles. [Linebacker] Kenneth Murray is going to do the exact same. So it’s not about whether he [Dowdle] says it or not, it’s about the way those guys approach the game, and the way we play, being a professional.”

Ferguson concurred, acknowledging that the locker room isn’t going to have the cliched reaction of foaming at the mouth to hit Dowdle on Sunday. Everyone is certainly ready for the reunion on Sunday.

“None at all,” Ferguson said of the effect Dowdle’s comments will have on the team’s approach. “I’m sure it could fire people up. In my eyes, I try to say, we talk about it in the tight end room, the three C’s: ‘calm, cool, collected.’ I tend to find myself when I’m listening to music before a game that I’m way too all over the place. So sometimes I have to calm myself down a little bit, listen to some slow stuff, but it is what it is. I’m not pinning stuff up on the board [saying] ‘I’m getting him Sunday.’ That’s not what I’m doing.”