Jonathon Brooks Camp Update — August 31: The Week One Starter Is Undecided

The Week One backfield now has a stated structure, and it is not a Jonathon Brooks takeover. Dave Canales laid it out on August 20-fourth: "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," with the starter between Brooks and Chuba Hubbard to be decided closer to the game, per Anthony Rizzuti at Panthers Wire. And the man he spent August replacing is coming back: Canales said the team expects Hubbard ready for Week One, and said he thought Hubbard had hit over 20 miles per hour the other day, per Kole Noble at A to Z Sports; he repeated the expectation a day later even while holding him from contact, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk.

Brooks himself is on the 53 — he appears in none of the reserve-list moves in Gantt's cutdown ledger at the team's site — and the room behind the top two thinned. Trevor Etienne left Friday's finale early with an ankle injury and went on injured reserve designated to return, with AJ Dillon expected to be the third back, per CBS Sports; and Miles Davis, whose one-yard touchdown won Friday's finale 16 to 13, per the Associated Press, was waived Saturday, per Alper. No running back appears among the practice-squad signings Rizzuti names Monday — 11 of the 12 are listed in his report.

Our last episode wanted two things: his finale workload, and whether Hubbard's return changes who takes the first handoff. There was no finale workload — the starters were held out by mutual agreement of Canales and DeMeco Ryans, per Kassidy Hill at the team's site — so the preseason ledger closes where it stood: nine touches, 32 yards, one touchdown, healthy exits both weeks. The second half got the answer above, and it is a structure rather than a name. Worth carrying forward: that episode also logged a missed pass-protection assignment on third down, per Noble, and third down is exactly the role Canales's structure hands to whichever back isn't leading the series. No reporting in the window resolves that trust question. One more moved piece: the lanes he ran through in August credited rookie Monroe Freeling at right tackle, and Freeling is now the Week One starter there — with both veteran tackles on reserve lists, per Gantt.

For the fantasy market's read — commentary, not a Carolina depth chart — Kyle Soppe at Pro Football Network has drafters taking Brooks somewhere between the 20-eighth and 30-second running back off the board, ahead of Hubbard at 30-fourth, while cautioning that Brooks has played three NFL games and has two ACL tears behind him.

The thread, from the top: our June preview called Brooks a blank page with a real opportunity, the tell being how the staff used him. August answered — first-team reps, a goal-line touchdown — but it answered while Hubbard was hurt. Now the coach has named a rotation and deferred the starter question on the record. The opportunity is real and it is shared. We'll be back as the opener gets closer.

_Data via nflverse._