{"id":912447,"date":"2026-06-07T13:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/912447\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:21:15","slug":"reporter-drops-major-nugget-about-how-panthers-view-rb-jonathon-brooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/912447\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporter drops major nugget about how Panthers view RB Jonathon Brooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> may be setting the stage for running back Jonathon Brooks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NFL national reporter Cameron Wolfe ran down his latest notes about the NFC South on Friday’s episode<\/a> of The Insiders podcast. When speaking on the Panthers, Wolfe stated that the reigning division champs seem to have great confidence in Brooks ahead of the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

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“From what I understand, they may ease him in early on in camp and during the season. But the hope is, if he can go full-go, he could be a guy that defines this offense,” Wolfe said of Brooks.<\/p>\n

“When they were at their best, Rico Dowdle<\/a> was playing really well. They let Rico Dowdle go, in part, because they felt Jonathon Brooks was ready to be the guy in this backfield.”<\/p>\n

As Wolfe alluded to, Carolina opted not to re-sign Dowdle\u2014who led the team with 1,076 rushing yards in 2025. His most productive performances from last year helped push the Panthers to their first NFC South crown in a decade, as they went 4-0 when Dowdle ran for at least 79 yards.<\/p>\n

But with Dowdle off to Pittsburgh<\/a>, the runway is a bit clearer for Brooks as he looks to complete his return from a second ACL tear<\/a>. The 22-year-old appeared in just three games as a rookie after being selected in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, then was sidelined for the entirety of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

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Brooks, for the first time in his pro career, was just a full participant<\/a> at organized team activities. The burst, speed and toughness he displayed during the practices earned encouraging reviews<\/a> from head coach Dave Canales, offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and multiple teammates.<\/p>\n

If Wolfe’s assessment is accurate, Chuba Hubbard<\/a> will likely get the bulk of the work out of the backfield early on. And at some point, the reins may finally be turned over to Brooks.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: NFL insider: Panthers feel RB Jonathon Brooks is ‘ready to be the guy’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Panthers may be setting the stage for running back Jonathon Brooks. NFL national reporter Cameron Wolfe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[12484,235,260,2567,1751,7,8811,1591,6,236,520,7152],"class_list":["post-912447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-cameron-wolfe","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-chuba-hubbard","tag-football","tag-jonathon-brooks","tag-nfc-south","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-pittsburgh","tag-rico-dowdle"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116709037425128041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}