Running Back · Carolina Panthers

Jonathon Brooks

No. 25 · 3rd season

Brooks is hurt, and Carolina's patience is about to be tested again

The Panthers drafted Jonathon Brooks to be the answer at running back. Right now, the question is just whether he'll be ready when the season starts.

Brooks has been here before — working back from injury while the calendar keeps moving. The details of this setback are still settling, but the uncertainty heading into the preseason opener is real. Whether he suits up in the first week of the regular season is genuinely unclear.

For a team that has already waited on Brooks, this is another chapter in a comeback that keeps asking for more time. That's not a criticism — it's just how it goes with some players. The body has its own schedule.

What happens next matters. Either Brooks finds his way onto the field before Week 1, or Carolina opens the year leaning on someone else. Both outcomes say something about where this rebuild actually stands.

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