CHARLOTTE — Jonathan Stewart saw Rico Dowdle go for 149 yards with his own two eyes one day.

And he saw Chuba Hubbard go for a lot more than that.

So when the Panthers legend pondered the backfield pairing that was created when they signed the former Cowboys back last week, one thought crossed his mind immediately.

"I thought to myself, why aren't the Cowboys keeping him?" Stewart said. "Because I thought he is a really good runner, natural runner, and has the explosive play ability that I think a lot of teams should be looking for, especially after seeing the Philadelphia Eagles run the table."

Dowdle ran for 1,079 yards last season and had 1,328 from scrimmage for the Cowboys, including 25 carries for 149 yards at Bank of America Stadium in December. So pairing him with a guy in Hubbard who ran for 1,195 and had 1,366 from scrimmage seems like a solid way to do business.

To Stewart's point, the Eagles followed running back Saquon Barkley all the way to the Super Bowl. They nearly ran for more yards than they passed, with Barkley's 2,005 part of the team's 3,048. (They did pass for 3,194, but that kind of ratio is unconventional, to say the least, at a time when many people still pooh-pooh the run game as old-fashioned.)

And Stewart knows better than most how it can work.

The last time a pair of backs on the same team topped 1,000 rushing yards in the same season was 2009 when he and DeAngelo Williams did it for the Panthers. They kept the team afloat that year as quarterback Jake Delhomme struggled through injuries in his final season with the team.

Stewart ran for 1,133 yards, Williams went for 1,117, and they managed to go 8-8 despite the instability at quarterback, part of a long run of rushing-focused offenses during those years. The team's success in those years was built on the run game, including their 12-4 record in 2008 when they ran for 2,437 yards (Williams had 1,515, Stewart 836).

But more than the yards, it was the personality that a strong running game offered, knowing the Panthers had a pair of backs who could break long runs or simply keep the chains moving, and that took a cumulative toll on defenses. Stewart might have been the bigger one, but both were hard to bring down.

1,000-yard rushing tandems on same team, NFL history

"The misconception, even with DeAngelo and me, is that I was a bigger running back, but when it comes to tackling both of us, you still had to really try to tackle us," Stewart said. "I mean, DeAngelo was smaller than me, but with his ability to break tackles and his contact balance, you can argue he was harder to tackle at times.

"So I think with Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard, the pairing there is so you won't skip a beat, right? That's basically what the Carolina Panthers got out of me and DeAngelo was the idea of you won't really skip a beat. You can still run your offense when one comes out of the game, and you don't have to, as an offensive coordinator, scratch your head when a guy gets tired or banged up."

Stewart also noted the moves the Panthers have made to maintain continuity on the offensive line, bringing back Austin Corbett, Brady Christensen, and Cade Mays, which means their top nine linemen in terms of snap counts last year are back. And with Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis in the middle, that group is clearly built to run.

"If you have an offensive line that's built to have a run game, why not run it when you can, right?" Stewart said. "It milks the clock, it saves your defense, and it protects your quarterback and it also opens up the pass game. So, I think right now we're sitting pretty nice with the offensive line.

"Chuba Hubbard had a fantastic season last year. He was the heartbeat of this team, and that's the type of energy you're going to need to go into this offseason with and to let guys know by example what they're expecting when it comes to guys competing. So I think adding Rico to the running back room takes the pressure off of Chuba as well, not having to think to yourself, 'Oh man, I have to stay healthy.' Having that in the back of your brain is the worst feeling ever. Because I know he's a team guy, and he wants to make sure that his team wins.

"So, the best formula for that is always having two guys in the backfield that can spell each other and not miss a beat."