Chuba Hubbard and Jonathon Brooks: Sharing The RB Load For The Carolina Panthers?
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Chuba Hubbard and Jonathon Brooks: Sharing The RB Load For The Carolina Panthers?

Ian Hartitz breaks down the Carolina Panthers RB room, and whether Chuba Hubbard or Jonathon Brooks can lead the backfield.

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Chuba Hubbard has gotten pretty used to sharing the load for the Carolina Panthers backfield, though now with Jonathon Brooks he's joined by a talented young player coming off multiple season-ending injuries to the same knee. Is this going to be a straight committee, or will Hubbard take over at some point? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Carolina Panthers Team Preview.

Are both Chuba Hubbard and Jonathon Brooks great Zero-RB targets?

Let's take a trip down memory lane for Mr. Chuba Hubbard:

  • 2021: Racked up 10 spot starts as a fourth-round rookie due to Christian McCaffrey playing only seven games. Pretty much all of his efficiency numbers painted him as a below-average RB.
  • 2022: Formed a committee with D'Onta Foreman after CMC was traded midseason. Hubbard took big steps forward in yards per carry (3.6 vs. 4.9) and yards per target (4.7 vs. 10.1).
  • 2023: Took over the backfield despite Miles Sanders signing a fairly big four-year, $25.4 million deal in Carolina. Chuba racked up 277 touches and worked as the RB33 in PPR points per game in his first season with HC Dave Canales.
  • 2024: Hubbard kept up the momentum and worked as THE running back, y'all. He finished with 293 touches in 15 games and worked as the RB13 in PPR points per game. The Panthers rewarded him with a four-year, $33.2 million extension in November.
  • 2025: An early-season calf injury led to some rough efficiency numbers and missed time. Hubbard wound up straight up losing his starting job to Rico Dowdle, but did turn things into more of a 1A/1B committee down the stretch.

Fast forward to the present day, and it sure looks like Hubbard is the leader in the clubhouse to (again) assume RB1 duties after Dowdle took his talents to Pittsburgh in free agency. This is also the last year of Hubbard's contract that has any guaranteed money. He should start out of the gate, meaning improved health could get the 27-year-old talent back to partying like it's 2024 again.

But what if Jonathon Brooks has something to say about that? We've seen Canales fade big-money contracts in both 2023 and 2025 in favor of simply playing the better guy, and Brooks was the first RB selected in the 2024 draft after all. Still only 22 years old, learned doctors are cautiously optimistic that he'll be meaningfully recovered by Week 1. Dr. Jeff Mueller also made a good point that he views this more as "the first procedure failed, but the second procedure is significantly stronger" sort of situation, as opposed to two separate devastating tears.

Initial fantasy football projections have Hubbard leading the way here—but it's close!

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It's fair to be uncertain about Hubbard's actual stranglehold on the starting job as well as whether or not Brooks is good and/or healthy enough to challenge for RB1 duties. This makes it tough to be too optimistic about either … but guess what: These sorts of situations accordingly lead to lower prices in fantasy land! Hubbard (RB27, pick 68) and Brooks (RB40, 120.9) have the sort of potential roles of guys that go several rounds earlier in drafts. I've been a bigger fan of the QBs available next to Hubbard in Round 6 (Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye), but that doesn't mean he can't provide similar production to someone like Bucky Irving, who currently goes nearly two rounds earlier. Brooks has been my preferred click at cost—he's available after the top-52 WRs, top-9 TEs, and top-20 QBs are already off the board.

Also note: Could we all be sleeping on Trevor Etienne? Meh. The 2025 fourth-rounder saw only 23 touches in 17 games last season despite Hubbard's aforementioned injury and general ineffectiveness. More opportunities could certainly be presented should Hubbard and Brooks struggle to get anything going, although that sort of sentiment is true for a lot of No. 3 RBs across the league. He's a literal last-round dart at best and more likely someone we'll just keep an eye on for future waiver wire purposes.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Chuba Hubbard
    ChubaHubbard
    RBCARCAR
    PPG
    8.1
    Proj
    156.0
  2. Jonathon Brooks
    JonathonBrooks
    RBCARCAR
    Proj
    116.1

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