CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers weren’t necessary looking to add a starting-caliber running back in free agency after giving Chuba Hubbard a four-year, $33 million contract extension last November.
They found one anyway.
Coach Dave Canales said he's been "ecstatic" since the Panthers signed Rico Dowdle in March, giving the team added depth in the backfield with a second 1,000-yard rusher. In so doing, they’ve added a highly motivated player who’s eager to prove that he’s still worthy of being a No. 1 back — and being paid like one — after the Dallas Cowboys opted not to re-sign him.
“I definitely thought I would have had the opportunity to get a shot with the ones this year, but it didn’t come down to that,” Dowdle said of his time on the free-agent market.
Some running back-needy teams opted for the draft to fill their needs rather than sign the 27-year-old Dowdle.
So he chose to bet on himself, agreeing to a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Panthers that could pay him up to $6 million with performance incentives. Dowdle hopes that if all goes well he can parlay his success into a big contract next spring.
In the meantime, he felt Carolina, with an improving offensive line led by highly paid guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis, was the best fit for him. It also afforded him the opportunity to return to the Carolinas where he played high school football in Asheville, North Carolina, and college ball at South Carolina.
“Great to be home,” he said with a smile.
Despite rushing for 1,079 yards and averaging 4.6 yards per carry and catching 39 passes for 249 yards and totaling five TDs in his first year as a starter, the Cowboys didn't express much interest in re-signing Dowdle despite a late-season surge that included three straight 100-yard rushing games.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones instead drafted Jaydon Blue from Texas in the fifth round and signed veteran free agents Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders, who was Hubbard's backup last season.
“To have two 1,000-yard backs in the same room and guys with experience, guys who can really do it all — can pass protect really well, catch the ball out of the backfield, I mean I was ecstatic," Canales said. "When we were kind of working through things (in free agency) and it starting looking like we were going to have a chance to get this guy, I couldn’t have been more excited."
Hubbard remains the starter in Carolina, coming off a career-high 1,195 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns in 2024 — despite sitting out the final two games.
But Canales sees a role for the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Dowdle, although he was sparse on the details.
Dowdle could have to compete for reps with fourth-round draft pick Trevor Etienne from Georgia, who has looked strong and fast in training camp. Carolina selected Texas' Jonathon Brooks in the second round in 2024, but he'll miss the entire season after reinjuring his ACL as a rookie.
“He’s exactly what we’re looking for out of our running backs,” Canales said of Dowdle. “Our backs, they run the runs exactly the way they’re supposed to be run — with discipline. And once they get past that first level they run with violence. (Dowdle) does those things.”
Dowdle would love to parlay a big season into a big paycheck.
But for now he said he's here to help the Panthers win.
He's in a familiar position, having to prove himself all over — just as he had to do coming into the league as an undrafted rookie in 2020.
“Coming from the position of being undrafted and obviously having to make the roster every, every year, I always feel like I got something to prove," Dowdle said. “And I will have something to prove until I get to where I wanna go.”
The Panthers practiced Tuesday in a downpour and more rain is in the forecast for Wednesday's joint practice with the Cleveland Browns. Despite the weather, Canales said he expects practices to go on as expected with plenty of full-contact drills and live hitting.
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Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle participates during an NFL football training camp, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle participates during an NFL football training camp, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle participates during an NFL football training camp, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with a new looming deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries.
The airman’s extraction followed a U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.” Trump said he was injured but in stable condition.
“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote on social media.
A second crew member was rescued earlier.
The fighter jet was the first American aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war, striking Iran on Feb. 28. The war has since killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.
Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.
As Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, in a weekend social media post, threatened to unleash “all Hell” if it isn’t opened by Monday. He has issued such threats before and extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war on agreeable terms.
The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.
On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of American aircraft shot down by Iranian forces, along with a photo of thick, black smoke rising into the air. The broadcaster said Iran had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation.
However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.
In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.
In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant that they said were caused by intercepted debris. Production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, was halted.
The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.
Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”
The waterway is a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, especially oil and gas moving from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia. Disruptions there have injected volatility into the market and pushed oil and gas-importing countries to seek alternative sources.
“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.
But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.
The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.
The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.
“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.
This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company and not Australian.
Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Members of Lebanon's General Security stand at the Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa valley, eastern Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man, who fled Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon with his family, sleeps in his car used as shelter, along a seaside promenade in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Followers of Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans as they wave national Iraqi flag during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Pedetrians walk by a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Police officers and their horses take cover in an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)
A man looks at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
