Will there soon be too many cats in the Carolina Panthers’ backfield?
On Monday, head coach Dave Canales provided quite an exciting update on 2024 second-round pick Jonathon Brooks. He told reporters that the 21-year-old running back, who has started his rookie campaign on the reserve/non-football injury list, is expected to hit the practice field starting this week.
Brooks, due to the ACL tear he sustained last November, has yet to receive the full green light as a pro. Despite the initial belief from April that he’d be ready for training camp, the youngster remained sidelined during both spring and summer workouts.
But now that Brooks has taken another real step towards his NFL debut, will his presence crowd the running back room? Will the organization’s desire to see him result in a trade, say, of Chuba Hubbard?
Canales was asked that this afternoon.
“Again, we just gotta get Jonathon out there, see where he’s at, take a good evaluation of him playing football, moving around with confidence and then we’ll make those decisions,” he replied.
Those decisions would be a lot easier if not for the recent success of Hubbard, who is currently the NFL’s third-leading rusher. Much of that production has come over the last four weeks, where the fourth-year back rushed for 407 yards and two scores.
Aside from the numbers, Hubbard’s also been the engine in Carolina’s pursuit of an identity on offense. He has helped justify the front office’s huge investments along their offensive line and has led the charge in establishing the run—one of the main focuses for Canales in his first season.
So, do you just trade that away?
No, of course you don’t.
Perhaps a deal makes sense at the most superficial level. Not only was Brooks the first running back selected in the 2024 draft, but the Panthers coveted him enough to trade up the board to solidify that honor.
Oh, and Hubbard is a free agent at season’s end. Why not ship him off for something if the future belongs to Brooks?
Well, for one, the Panthers might not get anything worthwhile in return. Although Hubbard is playing the best ball of his career, good luck finding a team who will hand over a real asset for a veteran running back in today’s NFL.
Heck, look at what happened with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just yesterday. Against a normally tough New Orleans Saints defense, 2023 undrafted free agent Sean Tucker ran for 136 yards while 2024 fourth-rounder Bucky Irving ran for 81.
Good rushers don’t grow on trees, but they’re not exactly low in stock either.
Plus, what Carolina could possibly get in exchange for Hubbard probably won’t be worth the contradiction that would follow.
Canales—since the spring—has heralded Hubbard for his attitude, his approach and his leadership. In fact, he praised him again today.
“It’s just the way that he comes to work every day with the focus and mentality to get better. He truly has that mentality that I love, that I wish we can all grow to as a group,” Canales said of Hubbard stepping up in 2024. “And he improves—every day in practice, game to game in the different ways he presses runs or picks up protection or runs certain routes. He’s in this relentless pursuit to find his best, and that’s the leadership that we need.”
In the grander scheme of Carolina’s current situation, Canales is out to establish a much-needed culture—not just the run.
It’s what pushed him to make the tough decision to throw in veteran quarterback Andy Dalton for Bryce Young, who simply wasn’t up to snuff. Although the Panthers would love to see the 2023 No. 1 overall pick eventually “get it,” his play was dragging down the work of his teammates.
Selling off Hubbard, a player who the head coach firmly believes has done everything the right way, would be like selling off a piece of the team’s soul. What kind of message would that send to rest of the locker room?
Instead of looking at Brooks’ impending return as an urgent problem, look at it as a good one. After all, isn’t having two capable running backs better than having one?
That’s a strategy that certainly works in the NFL, and one that this very franchise has its own memorable history with. Remember when Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster helped run Carolina to Super Bowl XXXVIII? And remember when Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams smashed and dashed their way through a handful of seasons together?
These Panthers will not make this year’s Super Bowl like Davis and Foster did. They won’t even be as competitive as most of those teams Stewart and Williams were on.
They do, however, have a culture to build—and Hubbard is a big part of it.
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