Is 2026 finally the season that Jonathon Brooks stays healthy and takes over the Carolina Panthers' backfield? Not so fast . . .
With Brooks participating in an NFL offseason for the very first time, many are wondering if the 2024 second-round pick is primed to jump ahead of starter Chuba Hubbard at some point this year. Well, according to ESPN senior NFL reporter Dan Graziano, Hubbard and Brooks will share the workload in the Carolina offense.
Graziano wrote the following on Tuesday:
That's why, to my understanding, the plan is for Hubbard and Brooks to split carries this season. If Hubbard stays healthy, he's the one in whom they've built up more trust, so I'd expect him to be the one the Panthers lean on to try to grind out games when they have
the lead. The split should be pretty close, but it would not be a surprise at all to get to the end of the season and see that Hubbard got the majority of the work.
This could be bad news—and not just for fantasy football players who plan to carry either Hubbard or Brooks on their roster.
The best way forward with running backs is to find out who your best option is, then ride him as long as he's healthy and productive. Canales seems to think that splitting the load is the best way to keep his backs healthy and his run game going strong—as evidenced by the 2025 share between Hubbard and Rico Dowdle.
But that approach flamed out by season's end. Hubbard never got back into a rhythm after he returned from a nagging calf injury and Dowdle, who went on a white-hot streak in the middle of the campaign, immediately lost his momentum.
Hopefully, Canales will learn from that mistake—but it sounds like we're in for more of the same in 2026.
"Yeah, we'll definitely roll it out just the way we have been—where you have a lead back for the series, the other guy comes in on third down so they can be in there for the protection," Canales told reporters last Monday of Hubbard and Brooks.
"And also, we run the ball on third down. So those are good opportunities to just keep a guy into the game while the other person—whether it's Chuba or JB, we'll make that decision when we get closer. But whoever the lead guy for the base downs is, they'll get the bulk of that rhythm."
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: NFL insider shares Panthers' plans at RB for 2026
