Jonathon Brooks Impresses on Red-Zone Work
Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks had another encouraging moment during this week’s joint practice with the Houston Texans. On a red-zone carry, Brooks showed real patience, waiting for a lane to open before cutting back and picking up roughly 10 to 12 yards, the kind of instinctive, controlled running that stands out even more given everything he’s worked through to get back on the field.
That context matters here. Brooks is coming back from two tears of the same right ACL, the first at Texas in 2023, the second in just his third career NFL game in December 2024. The second injury required additional surgery and wiped out his entire 2025 season, a brutal setback for a former second-round pick who had barely gotten started in the league. Through it all, Brooks has totaled just 12 career regular-season touches, nine carries for 22 yards and three catches for 23 yards.
This summer has told a different story. Brooks has looked comfortable cutting and accelerating in practice, worked extensively with the first-team offense, and continued building on flashes of the explosiveness that made him a well-regarded prospect coming out of college.
Much of his added opportunity traces back to Chuba Hubbard’s hamstring injury, which head coach Dave Canales described as “a legit hamstring” that will keep Carolina’s starter week-to-week, with a targeted return for the regular-season opener. In the meantime, Brooks has split first-team reps with Trevor Etienne, while Hubbard, sidelined but still very much invested, has continued mentoring Brooks throughout his recovery. “He’s been through so much,” Hubbard said. “Not everybody can come back from that, so I think it’s just a testament to who he is, not just as a football player but also a person.”
Even once Hubbard returns, Canales has been consistent in saying Carolina plans to keep rotating its backs rather than settling into a rigid feature-back arrangement. That means Brooks isn’t suddenly taking over the backfield outright, but every strong rep this summer, like Wednesday’s patient, well-read cutback, gives the Panthers more reason to trust him in a meaningful complementary role once the games start to count.
