Weird, Volatile Chuba Hubbard Stat Suggests Panthers RB Will Bounce Back

The Carolina Panthers desperately need a bounce-back season from Chuba Hubbard. Their offensive identity and success this year hinge on his and/or Jonathon Brooks' ability to play at a high level and punish defenses.

Hubbard was incredible in 2024, earning a massive extension that now looks a little foolish since he was pretty bad in 2025. Rico Dowdle helped make up for Hubbard's drop-off, but Dowdle is gone now. It's up to Hubbard once again.

Fortunately, there's a trend with Hubbard. He follows one bad year with a good year, which means that he should be back to normal this season. Hopefully.

Why Chuba Hubbard might actually bounce back this year

Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard (30) reacts after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Ian Hartitz pointed out that Chuba Hubbard's yards per carry, a good indicator of performance since it's on a per-play basis and can't be construed as a usage stat, is pretty volatile year over year. It waxes and wanes.

Chuba Hubbard yards per carry:

2021: 3.6
2022: 4.9
2023: 3.8
2024: 4.8
2025: 3.8

As we know: Correlation always implies causation. Expect Hubbard to get back to high-end efficiency now that he's playing in an even-numbered year.
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) May 26, 2026

He went from 3.6 yards to 4.9 then back to 3.8, up to 4.8 and finally back to 3.8 last season. It's almost whiplash-inducing. It implies, as Hartitz jokingly pointed out, that even-year Hubbard is a good player. Last we checked, 2026 is an even year.

There is actually an explanation for this, though. In 2021, he was a rookie backing Christian McCaffrey up. In 2022, he got a chance to work in tandem with D'Onta Foreman, a real one-year wonder, after the McCaffrey trade, and all three averaged over 4.5 YPC in their time with the Panthers, so that was just a great rushing year for the team (shoutout to the offensive line).

In 2023, the Panthers brought in Miles Sanders, who was awful. Being the backup, as we'll see in a moment, hasn't worked out so well for Hubbard in his career. Being behind a bad running back didn't help his performance.

In 2024, when he finally surpassed Sanders on the depth chart, he broke out with 4.8 yards per carry over a full season of work. Then in 2025, he was injured and lost his role to Rico Dowdle. Naturally, his numbers declined.

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales with running back Chuba Hubbard | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

We suspect he may have dealt with nagging injuries all year long. Regardless, being in and out of the lineup and being the secondary runner (not to mention Dave Canales' silly alternating series plan with him and Dowdle for several weeks) just didn't allow him to get up to speed.

So in 2026, there is actually a real shot he bounces back. Assuming he's fully healthy, he should be a fine runner again. And if the Panthers get good work out of Jonathon Brooks in tandem with Hubbard, we might begin to wonder if even-year Hubbard really is just strangely better than the odd-year version.

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