The Carolina Panthers are built to lean on the run, but the deeper you look at the backfield, the shakier that plan gets.
This is a team that has not been set up to live as a high-volume passing offense over the last two years. It does not have the weapons for that kind of attack, and Bryce Young is not that type of quarterback. Even with Young putting together an excellent training camp and Tetairoa McMillan plus Xavier Legette drawing attention, that reality does not appear ready to change this season.
So the Panthers keep circling back to the ground game. They want to feed the running backs and trust the offensive line to do the heavy lifting, but that approach has a problem when the talent in the backfield is thin.
Right now, Chuba Hubbard sits at the top of the depth chart. His 2024 season was uneven after he got hurt, lost his job to Rico Dowdle, and spent a long stretch on the bench. Still, he did play quite well that year, and he enters this season as the lead back.
The issue is what comes after him. Jonathon Brooks is finally healthy and backing him up, but that does not exactly solve the problem. Bleacher Report recently ranked NFL position groups, and Hubbard landed in the "replacement level" tier at No. 52 among running backs.
That is a rough spot to be in, especially since the players in that tier are mostly backups. The ranking feels too harsh for Hubbard, who is better than that, but it is also hard to argue he is much more than that at this point after 2025.
Brooks did not appear in any tier at all. That is not the same as saying he does not belong on the list. It just reflects how hard it is to place him after only three games and two ACL tears on the same knee during his time so far.
He looks healthy, and he looks like he could become a star. But for now, he is still a major question mark.
That leaves Carolina in a bad place: a backfield led by a borderline backup and backed up by an injury-prone unknown. For a team that wants to run the ball and does not consistently throw it well, that is a brutal combination.
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Greg Olsens recollection from training camp offered a fitting reminder of that mindset, with Kuechly already worrying about whether the Hall of Fame news would interrupt team routines. It is a small detail, but one that fits perfectly with the image Panthers fans have held onto for years: a star who never seemed to put himself ahead of the group, even when the biggest individual honor in the sport was coming his way. [Read more 🡒]