Panthers' Chuba Hubbard Has Massive Shoes to Fill With Rico Dowdle Gone

The Carolina Panthers want to be a running football team. That is the mentality they've adopted under head coach Dave Canales. Whether it's because Bryce Young can't carry an NFL offense by throwing 40 times a game or because Canales doesn't want that (probably the latter), that's their identity.

That proved itself to be true last year. Even when the run game wasn't working, Canales almost refused to abandon it. It wasn't working very much at the end of the year, but in the first half, they had about as good a rushing attack as anyone.

Chuba Hubbard was relegated to a backup role after Rico Dowdle had an insane "Linsanity" run while Hubbard worked back from an injury. This year, Dowdle's gone to Pittsburgh, and Hubbard's RB1 again. The problem is, Hubbard didn't look capable of even replicating Dowdle's work last season.

Chuba Hubbard must step up in the absence of Rico Dowdle

Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard (30) runs on to the field before the game | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

It is impossible to say whether or not Jonathon Brooks will be a good offensive weapon for the Panthers this year. He is coming off a second torn ACL to the same knee suffered roughly a year apart, and he has literally 12 touches at the NFL level.

So for all intents and purposes, the question is whether or not Chuba Hubbard can be what Rico Dowdle was or better in 2026. Based on the 2025 performance, that doesn't seem very likely.

A look at which running backs can generate explosive runs while avoiding negative runs

Jeanty (and the Raiders) really struggled at preventing negative runs pic.twitter.com/N6LVkYPIVY
— Nutshell Sports (@NutshellSportz) May 20, 2026

The best running backs in the NFL do one of two things. They either limit negative plays, or they more than make up for them with tons of explosives. Rico Dowdle with the Panthers had a solid 10.1% explosive play rate, but his 6.3% negative play rate was very solid.

Dowdle wasn't ripping off huge gains a ton, but he was avoiding negative plays pretty well. Hubbard had a negative play rate of 5.2%, so he was a little better at avoiding those problems. He didn't, however, have the same explosiveness. He had an explosive play rate of just 5.9%.

Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle (5) runs the ball against Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The Panthers won't get far on offense if their rushing attack, which is meant to be the focal point of the offense, is led by a player who rarely ever gets explosive plays. For comparison, that 5.9% rate is similar to Kareem Hunt, RJ Harvey, and Devin Singletary.

Hubbard has to bounce back to his 2024 form or the Panthers are in trouble. He may have been dealing with injuries all year, but whatever the case, he has to be a whole lot better.

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