Two things changed at once in Carolina, and either alone would have mattered less. Chuba Hubbard, the incumbent lead back, picked up a hamstring injury described as "legit" during training camp. At the same moment, Jonathon Brooks — fully cleared from his second ACL surgery — started trending upward, working with the first-team offense and scoring his first NFL touchdown in the team's second preseason game. Neither fact by itself rewrites the depth chart. Together, they are why Brooks' ADP has moved more than almost any other back in fantasy this preseason.
That is the entire case. It is a real one, but it is also a conditional one, and the condition is health — Hubbard's hamstring, and Brooks' knee. Anyone recommending Brooks needs to say that plainly rather than let the touchdown highlight do the talking.
What the Second ACL Surgery Actually Cost Him
Brooks missed the entire 2025 season recovering from a second ACL surgery. That is not a minor injury note — it is a full year with zero NFL regular-season production to point to, which is why there is no reliable season-long statistical baseline to cite for him. Any bullish read on Brooks has to be built from what he is doing right now in practice and preseason snaps, not from a track record, because the track record does not exist in usable form. That cuts both ways: it means the recent camp buzz is the freshest and most relevant data point available, but it also means there is far less proof of durability than the ADP climb might suggest to a casual reader scanning a preseason box score.
The one specific data point in hand is a strong one: 24 rushing yards on six carries, a seven-yard catch, and a rushing touchdown in Carolina's second preseason game. A separate tally put him at eight carries for 23 yards and a touchdown across the team's preseason games against Buffalo and Jacksonville, though that number depends on which games are being counted. Small samples, but the trend in both readings points the same direction — increasing usage, first-team reps, and finishing plays in the end zone.
Hubbard, Etienne, and Dillon: Who Else Is In This Room
Chuba Hubbard remains the Panthers' depth-chart RB1 and the player Brooks has to pass, not replace by default. Hubbard's hamstring issue opened the door this preseason, but he is expected back by Week 1, and a healthy Hubbard is still the incumbent with the coaching staff's trust. Nothing in Carolina's plan treats Hubbard as removed from the equation — he is a rehabbing starter, not a departed one.
Behind both of them, Carolina added competition rather than removing it. Trevor Etienne arrived through the 2026 draft and has been projected on the depth chart behind Hubbard and Brooks since spring. AJ Dillon joined on a one-year veteran deal in March, adding another body capable of eating early-down snaps if either Hubbard or Brooks falters. Neither addition threatens Brooks' current standing as the No. 2 back ahead of them, but their presence caps the ceiling of what a full-blown timeshare could look like if Canales decides to spread touches four ways instead of two. The quarterback situation is unchanged — Bryce Young is still the starter — and Dave Canales remains the head coach, running the offense under coordinator Brad Idzik, so the scheme context around this backfield has not shifted; only the personnel jockeying inside it has.
Canales Is Still Describing a Committee, Not a Coronation
The single most important piece of evidence against an aggressive Brooks bet is Canales' own language. He has said the Panthers would "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." That is not the description of a job about to flip outright to a new starter. Canales followed that by saying, "whoever the lead guy for the base downs is, they'll get the bulk of that rhythm," which frames this as a week-to-week determination based on who is playing well and who is healthy, not a settled depth-chart promotion.
“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.”
— Dave Canales
Canales did single out Brooks' recent performance, saying his "running aggressively was so important," and Brooks himself spoke to what the touchdown meant to him personally: "Just to give a sign to my father, because I want to show the world, I want him to live through me." That is meaningful color on a player finding his footing again after a lost season, but it is not a depth-chart announcement.
The Strongest Case Against Buying In Now
The steelman here is straightforward. Hubbard is expected back by Week 1. Canales has publicly committed to a lead-back-by-series structure rather than a clean handoff. Brooks is carrying two ACL surgeries into a season where Carolina will almost certainly manage his workload carefully regardless of how well he plays in August. And the roster now includes Trevor Etienne and AJ Dillon as additional laps around the track for touches if either top back stumbles. Put together, that argument says Brooks projects as a committee piece with upside, not a locked-in three-down starter — and the market reflects some of that hesitation itself, with Sleeper's ADP still pricing Hubbard well ahead of Brooks even after the camp buzz.
The answer to that case is not to dismiss it — it is largely correct as a description of Week 1. The answer is that camp momentum and health swings are exactly the mechanism by which committees resolve into clearer hierarchies during the season, and Brooks now has the coaching staff's stated framework — "whoever the lead guy for the base downs is, they'll get the bulk of that rhythm" — working in his favor if he keeps outplaying Hubbard in practice. The path to a lead share does not require a training-camp announcement. It requires continued separation, and Brooks has been the one separating.
The Call
Treat Brooks as a back who has real, current momentum toward the larger half of a shared workload, not a player who has already won the job outright. Yahoo had him at ADP 74 in late August, and NBC Sports flagged an eight-spot value jump around the same window — that is a market recognizing the trend, not one that has fully priced him as Carolina's clear lead back. The fair framing is a high-upside complementary back with a plausible path to weekly flex value and spike weeks if Hubbard's hamstring lingers, rather than a guaranteed top-12 finisher. Draft him as a high-ceiling RB3 with league-winning potential attached to health, not as a locked starter — and check Hubbard's practice status every week before setting a lineup, because that single injury report is still the hinge this entire backfield swings on.