Jonathon Brooks Is Taking First-Team Reps in Carolina: A Two-Time ACL Rehab Finally Has a Runway

Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks has been taking first-team reps at training camp, and head coach Dave Canales has spoken positively about what he has seen from a player whose NFL career has barely started. Brooks has nine career carries, all from 2024, and two torn ACLs on his medical file. He is also, at this moment, the most interesting name on Carolina's offensive depth chart for anyone drafting a fantasy team in August.

The context that makes this actionable: Rico Dowdle, who took the starting job from Chuba Hubbard last season, left in free agency. Carolina did not replace him with a high-priced veteran. The touches Dowdle vacated are sitting there, and the team has spent the opening week of camp showing Brooks with the ones.

The path that got him here

Brooks was a second-round pick out of Texas in 2024 who arrived already rehabbing an ACL tear suffered in college. He got on the field late in that rookie season for a handful of carries before tearing the ACL again, which cost him effectively all of the following year. That is two full development cycles lost at the position where development cycles matter least and physical explosiveness matters most.

The optimistic read is that Brooks is a former high-end prospect who has finally strung together a healthy offseason and is being deployed accordingly. The skeptical read is that a running back with two ACL reconstructions is a running back whose second contract, and possibly his second season of real usage, is not coming. Both readings are defensible. What is not in dispute is that Carolina is giving him the reps, and reps in late July and early August are the closest thing to a public depth chart that exists.

The Carolina backfield as it stands

Hubbard remains the incumbent and the safest bet for early-down volume. He lost the job to Dowdle at one point last season, which is a meaningful data point about how the staff views his ceiling, but he is also the back the coaching staff knows and trusts in protection. Trevor Etienne is in the room and figures to compete for a change-of-pace role. Carolina has also carried veteran depth into camp.

The most likely opening-week arrangement is a committee with Hubbard handling the early-down base work and Brooks absorbing the passing-down and explosive-play snaps that Dowdle used to take. The path to something more than that runs through preseason and September: if Brooks looks like the back Texas produced, this becomes his backfield quickly, because Carolina has no financial or organizational reason to protect Hubbard's touches.

The offense around them

Bryce Young is the quarterback, and Carolina's offense under Canales has been built to keep the run game viable rather than to run up passing volume. That matters for fantasy in two directions. It caps the ceiling for any single Panthers pass catcher, and it raises the floor on backfield carries in games Carolina keeps close.

Camp has not been kind to Carolina otherwise. Second-year edge rusher Nic Scourton tore an ACL in the first practice, and rookie receiver Chris Brazzell II was carted off with a knee injury that will require season-ending surgery. A defense losing its young pass rusher is a defense that will be on the field more, and offenses attached to bad defenses tend to throw. That is a modest positive for a pass-catching back and a modest negative for a two-down grinder.

Fantasy fallout

Brooks is a late-round pick with a genuine path to standalone value, which is the exact profile that wins leagues in the last four rounds. The distinction worth drawing is between Brooks and the average handcuff. A handcuff needs an injury to matter. Brooks needs only for the current camp arrangement to hold into September, because the passing-down role in a committee is worth flex production in point-per-reception formats on its own.

Hubbard's price should not move much on this. He was already being drafted as a mid-tier RB2 with committee risk baked in, and the presence of Brooks was known before camp opened. If anything, managers who believe Brooks' medical history will catch up with him should be buying Hubbard at a discount from anyone spooked by the camp reports.

Etienne is a deep-dynasty name only. The two-back structure in Carolina does not leave room for a third relevant player unless someone gets hurt.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's backfield projections weight camp first-team usage heavily in the first two weeks of August, because that window historically carries more predictive signal for Week 1 snap share than any other public information short of the actual depth chart release. Brooks' projection has moved up on the reps alone.

Where the model stays conservative is on games played. It applies a durability discount to backs with multiple ACL reconstructions that is steeper than what industry rankings use, and the discount does not fully unwind until a player logs a full healthy season. The net effect is a per-game projection for Brooks that sits near flex-viable in point-per-reception scoring, paired with a season-long projection that is meaningfully lower because of the availability haircut.

That combination is exactly what makes him a value at his current cost rather than a trap. Drafters are being asked to pay a late-round price for a player whose weekly output, when he plays, projects several rounds better than that. The risk is priced in. The upside is not.

What to do in your league

Draft him in the last four rounds in redraft and be happy to. Do not spend a mid-round pick chasing the breakout, because the medical file makes a full sixteen-game workload the least likely outcome on the board.

In dynasty, Brooks is a buy from managers who have already written him off. Two ACL tears is a real discount, and a 2024 second-round pick with a clear runway to touches in his age-23 season is not a player you can normally acquire for a late second-round rookie pick.

In best ball, he is a strong target because the format pays for the weeks he plays and does not punish the weeks he does not.

What's next

Carolina opens the preseason against Arizona in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton on August 6, which is unusually early exposure for a team with a backfield question to settle. Brooks is unlikely to see extended work in an exhibition given his history, but the snap distribution in the first two series will tell you how the staff is thinking. Watch whether he takes the first-team third-down snap. That single data point is worth more to a fantasy manager than any quote from a press conference.