• Chuba Hubbard kept overcoming new competition: The Carolina Panthers brought in D’Onta Foreman, Miles Sanders and Jonathon Brooks in consecutive seasons, all with the intent of overtaking Hubbard on the depth chart. Hubbard overcame the competition to remain the Panthers’ lead back.
• The Panthers added more reinforcements: Carolina added two more running backs to the depth chart, but they will cut into Hubbard’s snaps more than his touches.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

PFF’s Fantasy Football Player Profile series delivers the most in-depth fantasy football analysis available for the 2025 season.

Using PFF’s exclusive data, we evaluate player performance, competition for touches and how teammates and coaching staffs will impact each player’s fantasy football outlook.

Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Sunday, May 18

Player performance

Hubbard was a Panthers fourth-round pick in 2021. He won the backup role behind Christian McCaffrey and ended up starting 10 games in McCaffrey’s place. He only averaged 3.6 yards per carry, so Carolina invested in some backup competition with D’Onta Foreman, who was the early down back while Hubbard was the receiving back when McCaffrey was traded.

In 2023, the Panthers invested in Miles Sanders to be their running back of the future. Sanders started the first five games but was inactive in Week 6. Hubbard ran 19 times for 88 yards and a touchdown, and he maintained the starting job for the rest of the season. His 19.2 touches per game ranked ninth-best among running backs from Week 9 on, but low efficiency left him with 12.5 PPR points per game, ranking 24th among fantasy running backs.

The Panthers added yet another running back of the future by spending their second-round pick on Jonathon Brooks. He suffered an ACL injury in college, which ended up keeping Brooks out of the first half of the season. They eased him into action, but he suffered another ACL tear. This gave Hubbard another opportunity to prove he should be the starter, and he made the most of it.

Hubbard received more help from the offensive line, finishing with more yards before contact per attempt and a lower stuffed rate. This gave him room to avoid more tackles and break more long runs, leading to an increase to 3.5 yards after contact per carry compared to 2.9 from the year before. His 2024 mark ranked third among running backs with at least 170 rushing attempts. From a grades perspective, he both increased how frequently he received a positive grade and how often he achieved a highly positive grade. The Panthers rewarded Hubbard after his breakout season with a four-year, $33.2 million extension in November.

While Hubbard was a receiving back at times early in his career, he hasn’t been very productive as a receiver in recent years. If Hubbard becomes a top-10 fantasy running back this season, it would likely be due to an increase in receiving production. He ranked eighth in rushing yards last season, compared to 42nd in receiving yards among running backs, leading to 16.1 PPR points per game, 13th among running backs.

Projected role

The Panthers moved on from Miles Sanders, and Jonathon Brooks is on the PUP list. Carolina brought in new competition for touches, the Dallas Cowboys‘ former starting running back Rico Dowdle and Georgia running back Trevor Etienne. This will likely cut into Hubbard’s snap rate, but it’s debatable how much it will cut into his fantasy value.

Hubbard ran a high 22 routes per game but gained minimal production from those routes. Neither Dowdle nor Etienne was the primary third-down back for their team last season, but that will be the most direct path to playing time for either player. Etienne could be a favorite there due to his relatively high receiving grade. 

Someone will likely take some of Hubbard’s snaps on early downs. Given how much Carolina has invested in each running back, Hubbard should still be the clear starter. There is also room for Hubbard to receive the ball on a higher percentage of his snaps, so even if he’s off the field more often, this might not mean a significant reduction in his touches.

Impact of teammates

Hubbard will be entering his second season with Canales as his head coach. Canales is generally used to one running back taking most of the early down work, from Marshawn Lynch and Chris Carson with the Seattle Seahawks to Rachaad White in 2023 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This further reinforces the idea that Hubbard should stay above a 50% snaps rate and receive a clear majority of the carries. His run rate over expected has generally been balanced. It was higher than usual last year, likely due to Bryce Young’s struggles early in the season. If Young continues to play relatively well in 2025, we could see a slight decrease in Hubbard’s run rate.

The good news for Hubbard and the rest of the Panthers’ running backs is that Carolina has put together one of the best run-blocking offensive lines in the league. Carolina had a 73.1 team run grade last season. Everyone but Corbett stayed healthy last season. The continuity with the coaching staff and line should help the team at least maintain its top-10 status. The line should help ensure Hubbard can continue his quality of play from last season rather than revert to how he played in earlier seasons.

Bottom line

Hubbard was a top-20 fantasy running back last season. There isn’t much reason to expect him to crack the top-10 fantasy running backs in points per game this season, but he’s not in as much danger of losing his starting job compared to a number of running backs selected ahead of him. If you’re looking for a high-floor, low-ceiling RB2, Hubbard is the right man for the job.

Footnotes

• Statistics in tables and charts were chosen based on their ability to predict future fantasy performance on a per-game or per-opportunity basis or to describe the player relative to others at the same position.
• “Opportunities” are defined as passing dropbacks, rushing attempts and routes run as a receiver.
• Numbers are provided either by season or based on the past three years. For rookies, only college statistics are included. For non-rookies, only NFL statistics are considered, regardless of whether they played in college within the previous three years.
• As college competition is easier than NFL competition, most rookies are likely to see a decline from their historical numbers.
• Only FBS data is considered for college players and comparisons.
• Kneel-downs are removed from rushing data to provide cleaner quarterback rushing rate statistics.
• The table colors in this article range from blue (indicating good/high) to red (indicating bad/low).
• All percentiles and color codings compare the given player to others with a high sample of opportunities. Generally, the cutoff is one-third of the possible opportunities in the sample. If a player does not meet the threshold, they are still included in the comparison, though their results may appear better or worse than expected due to the smaller, less predictive sample size.
• Information on utilization classifications and their importance can be found here for running backs, wide receivers and tight ends.