FRISCO, Texas -- Week 6 of the 2025 NFL season brings forth a referendum on the Dallas Cowboys' free agency decision-making at the running back position.
Dallas watched now-27-year-old running back Rico Dowdle become the first undrafted player in team history to rush for over 1,000 yards in 2024, and despite that, allowed him to walk in free agency to sign a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Carolina Panthers in 2025. The Cowboys are readying to face Dowdle and the Panthers in Week 6 a week after he was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 5. He earned that hardware thanks to him producing a career-high 206 yards rushing and a touchdown on 12 carries (nine yards a carry) in Carolina's 27-24 victory over the Miami Dolphins. In most circumstances, a team letting a player like Dowdle walk for relative pennies would be feeling some type of regret.
That's not the case for the Cowboys since 25-year-old Javonte Williams, who 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 heard of him with both growing up in North Carolina, and Williams seeing him on high school recruiting rankings.
"It's hard. Rico is a really skilled runner, great vision. He runs hard. The guys who have been around him, we've got 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. "Were we right? I don't know. Javonte is doing great. Rico is doing great, but the Carolina Panthers are a damn good run team, and that's not just because of Rico. It's because of their offensive line, but I'm proud of Rico."
So why did Dallas make the choice to take the plunge on Williams despite a gnarly knee injury (a torn ACL and LCL) in 2022 that limited his efficiency? Schottenheimer and Co. fell in love with his playstyle on tape, and they projected a return to form three years removed from the injury. The love is mutual.
"I wanted to come [here] as much as they wanted me probably, but I mean it all just worked out," Williams said on Thursday. "I'm glad it did. I'm glad I came. I'm glad I got the teammates I got."
"I'm the president of Javonte's fan club," Schottenheimer said last Friday. "Just because of the way he plays the game. ... Javonte is a guy that doesn't need huge windows. ... Javonte has the ability to quickly one cut and find a seam, or if it's not there, he's going to get his shoulders down and push the pile for two, three, four yards. What I love about Javonte is he gets stronger as the game gets going."
The Cowboys' gamble has paid off early on: Williams’ 5.7 yards per carry is the fourth-best in the NFL, his five rushing touchdowns are tied for the second-most in the league and he leads the NFL in rushing first downs with 25. Nearly a third of Williams’ carries, 31.6% (25 of 79), are going for first downs. That’s the highest rate in the league among 30 players with at least 45 carries this season.
Williams actually ran into Cowboys fill-in left tackle Nate Thomas before bouncing off of him to rip off a career-long, 66-yard run at the end of the first half against the Jets in Week 5. Dallas went up 23-3 with 19 seconds left in the first half on the very next play, a one-yard touchdown toss 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 that means he gets there," Thomas said on 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 some sort of sound effect every time Williams runs with the football, something that changes depending on the situations.
"Oh absolutely. You definitely hear something. It just depends on what it is. Sometimes you can hear him, and he's flying right past you, it's choom. Or he hits somebody, it's the pads thumping," Thomas said.
Tight end Jake Ferguson described Williams’ running style in one word: “DAWG.” Prescott elaborated a little more on Williams’ calculated bulldozing.
"He knows where the offensive line is blocking and he knows where the soft spot is in the defense. You can just see it on times of setting up things and coming back out this way," quarterback Dak Prescott said on Thursday. "Super physical but smart. It's not just a bull in a china shop. He's doing it very calculated."
Dallas started their final drive of the first half at New York in Week 5 on their own 33 with 35 seconds left on the clock, so Schottenheimer was calculating Williams’ first down run 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 calculus.
"It's a little bit like, you can't stick your toe in the water like, 'Hey, let's see if this goes.' It was not called to go for 60-something yards. It was not called that way," Schottenheimer said. "And then when Javonte started to break, it was like, 'Okay, good, this is awesome. Okay, you might not score, please get out of bounds.' And he did. It shows the IQ, the football IQ of Javonte. At that point, we were obviously very comfortable because we knew we were going to get a couple shots at the end zone. But if that run goes for a yard or two, I would be lying if I said we were going to go two-minute. But if it had gone for 10, 12, 15, we would have gone."
Williams broke two tackles on his 66-yard eruption on Sunday, not including his friendly fire with Thomas. That’s a play style that gets his offensive linemen grinning ear to ear when asked to describe it. The 25-year-old’s 326 rushing yards after contact this season are the second-most in the NFL behind only Indianapolis Colts All-Pro Jonathan Taylor’s 346.
"Do y'all not see the amount of people he hits, and [he] just looks at them. Yeah, he's very violent," Thomas said.
The greatest example of Williams’ contact balance came on third-and-1 early in the second quarter where he appeared to get stuffed on a shotgun run up the middle. Instead of losing two or three yards, Williams kept churning until he lunged forward to move the chains for a first down.
"That well-blocked play? That excellent play that was exactly how we drew it up. You don't block the defensive end and then a guy crosses [Jake Ferguson's] face and there's no one there. That one? Yeah, I remember that. ... That was one of my best calls of the day," Schottenheimer said sarcastically; "That was just an incredible, incredible effort by a fiery, doesn't say much, ultra competitive baller. That was one of the best yard-and-a-half runs I've ever seen."
How physical is Williams? Physical enough that Schottenheimer became comfortable enough to compare him to a couple of Pro Bowlers he's coached in other stops: Michael Turner and Thomas Jones.
"His run style is different, so I mean, I hate comparing players. I was around 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 get his pads down; strike with power; leg drive; it's unique," Schottenheimer said."But if you watch him pre-practice; getting ready; post-practice; working on leg strength; things like that; it's no surprise he has bounced back; been as effective."
Another key to Williams' effectiveness is Dallas' decision to hold him out of the 2025 preseason entirely as he ramped up to return to full strength post-ACL-and-LCL tear.
"It goes back to the importance of practice. How we just really talked about it a ton in training camp; you get such great work against our defense. We saw what we're seeing now without the tackling part of it. We saw that every day in practice against our defense. The decisiveness; quickness; ability to make people miss; ability to run through people," Schottenheimer said on Monday.
Williams' single-season career-high in carries is 217, something he set back in 2017, but with 79 carries through five games, he's on pace to shatter that figure with an estimated 269 carries this season. That doesn't matter in Schottenheimer's mind: Williams will remain "the bell cow."
"We're mindful of it. I think it's a situation where you never want to put that thing into the atmosphere about what could happen, but it is a violent position. He's playing great," Schottenheimer said; "Javonte is the bell cow; he's earned that. We believe in him; that's the way we'll approach it moving forward."
That's music to Williams' ears considering he was unsure about his football future back in 2022 following his knee injury. Now, he's entrenched as the Cowboys' bell cow.
"Nah; there was a time I thought it was going to be over with; but I just kept going," Williams said."The coaches have a lot of trust in me.I like my teammates...It takes time with injuries.I'm just glad I'm back healthy."