With just a few weeks to go before the start of the season, the Carolina Panthers have a few questions in their backfield.
One of them has to do with the status of Chuba Hubbard, who has been sidelined during training camp with a hamstring injury. The other pertains to how Carolina plans on deploying Hubbard and his backfield mate, Jonathon Brooks.
On Monday, Panthers head coach Dave Canales provided some clarity on both of those subjects.
Chuba Hubbard injury update
Canales told reporters on Monday that Hubbard is expected to be ready to go for the start of the season.
“Absolutely,” Canales said when asked if Hubbard would be ready to roll for the season-opener. “He’s ahead of schedule. He’s doing a great job.”
Hubbard also spoke to reporters and revealed he is feeling good and would have returned to practice immediately but the coaches and training staff are just being cautious with his injury.
“Yeah, to be honest, I feel pretty good,” Hubbard revealed. “I think the coaches are just — and obviously the training staff — are just trying to take care of me. Obviously, last year I kind of came back a little early and it kind of lingered on for a little bit, so I think it’s just them kind of protecting me from myself a little bit. I would have been out the next day if I could’ve, but I feel good, I feel healthy. Looking forward to Week 1.”
Panthers’ running back plan
All offseason long, the expectation has been that Carolina will have Brooks and Hubbard in a timeshare, at least to start the season.
Canales confirmed that will indeed be the case, with one back starting a series and the other coming in on third downs.
“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, and also we run the ball on third down,” Canales explained.
“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 so that they can kind of feel what’s happening with the fronts and how the defense is trying to play as well,” Canales added.
One thing to keep an eye on with Brooks is his pass protection. He had some rough reps during his two preseason games and he may be limited on third downs if he can’t be more consistent, which would lead to more work for Hubbard.
Hubbard hasn’t been great in pass pro during his career, but he is certainly better and more proven than Brooks as we sit here today.
While we’re set for a 50-50 split to start the season, we’ve already seen Canales lean more toward one back if someone is playing better, as we saw with Hubbard and Rico Dowdle last season.
So, don’t be surprised if one or the other seizes more control of the backfield as the season progresses.
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