Jonathon Brooks

... how about the pregame interview-

Jonathan Taylor or Jonathan Brooks?

Jonathan Brooks.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

How about the pregame interview, like, talking up Odell Beckham, yeah,

Bijan, of course, going into the must-start category.

Then we have this, uh, duo of Chuba Hubbard and Jonathan Brooks, and it, it became pretty clear I feel like by the end of the summer that it was gonna be, like, Chuba Hubbard to start things off very, very hot, and Jonathan Brooks was, like, missing practice, and it just felt like they were gonna ease him in.

The vibe shifted completely.

Once Chuba Hubbard, you know, had his hamstring early in August, the hamstring injury, then everything started pushing towards Jonathan Brooks, and my sentiment felt like this is too high.

There's too much risk.

Like, once Chuba's healthy, they're still gonna use him in a, in a one-A, one-B situation at worst, and it was a clear, like, shift towards Chuba being the dude in week one, and he dominated snaps.

He scored two touchdowns.

They get a pretty good matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, who now lost another interior defensive lineman who is likely gonna be out for the year.

Crosskey, Merritt.

I got j- uh, JCM on, uh, Washington, and I got, um, uh, uh, Jonathan Brooks on Carolina.

And literally like McMillan and like tho- they were on my do not draft list because they've got line issues.

They, like, they've already got two offensive linemen out for the year.

But in this game, he looked really great as a runner, and, you know, maybe taking a little bit off his plate in the run game will help him be a more efficient player, and we're not really losing anything because Kalen Ballage is getting some opportunities.

Next game is the Bears versus Panthers, and we're on Jonathan Brooks watch, you know.

Uh, the Panthers s- I think s- were signaling to us really early on in the off-season that they thought Jonathan Brooks would be a big part of their offense because they let Rico Dowdle walk after Rico Dowdle had some really impressive moments for them in 2025 and then did not really make another move to address the backfield.

And that was pretty clear signal to me that they think Jonathan Brooks is going to be someone that matters for them in 2026 Of course, Chuba Hubbard's still there and has been kind of an old reliable for them, but, uh, while he has been able to put up some really nice fantasy points for us at times, he hasn't been particularly dynamic, uh, not as dynamic as we thought he could be in the NFL.

Uh, week one comes around, Jonathan Brooks gets worked in pretty slowly.

Uh, probably slower than most people expected.

It was slower than I expected.

Uh, the way that they were kind of working this off-season, it really seemed like they were gonna come into week one and this was gonna be like a 50/50 split, but it was not.

Um, I was a little worried all summer, or the end of it, wi- with, uh, I think it was a hamstring.

Uh, and of course Jonathan Brooks.

But we're looking good wi- with Chuba Hubbard because, you know, it's like the, the, the entire off-season narrative that was in my head held true to form in week one.

Chuba Hubbard is the RB one unquestionably for the Panthers.

How about

the Jonathan Brooks

one? The one down the right sideline.

Oh, no, not the Brooks one.

The Carolina Panthers.

So, on one hand, you know, it's clearly fun that they cooked through the air, but from a playing time perspective, if you bought, you know, Jonathan Brooks in the 70s, you were hoping for a little bit more.

The idea he was completely healthy and dominant and flashing in training camp and They're in a game with 90 points in week one.

You would think that Jonathan Brooks is a little bit more involved, but they had 68 offensive snaps and Jonathan Brooks played 13.

Not a great role.

He was fine.

Okay, as a runner, not all that much better than Chuba as a runner from a PFF grade perspective, but Chuba dominated the backfield.

Chuba played 48 snaps.

How about

the Jonathan Brooks

one? The one down the right sideline.

Oh, no, not the Brooks one.

And then some of the other committee backs, like I'd rather have JCM.

I'd rather have Jonathan Brooks, I'd rather have the Vikings backfield, either Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason.

Through week one, it's looking pretty bleak here for Tony Pollard.

And then the final player in this video, it's going to be Marshawn Lloyd.