{"id":227609,"date":"2025-10-15T23:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227609\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T23:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:08:07","slug":"panthers-face-choice-between-chuba-hubbard-rico-dowdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227609\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers face choice between Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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David NewtonOct 15, 2025, 05:45 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>David Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to ESPN in 2006 as a NASCAR reporter before joining NFL Nation in 2013.<\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers<\/a> running back Chuba Hubbard<\/a> said he expects to play against the New York Jets<\/a> on Sunday, but he isn’t sure in what capacity after missing the past two games with a calf injury.<\/p>\n

His replacement, Rico Dowdle<\/a>, complicated the situation<\/a> with 473 yards from scrimmage — a two-game team record — in wins against the Miami Dolphins<\/a> and Dallas Cowboys<\/a>. Dowdle had 389 rushing yards, falling 17 yards shy of becoming only the fifth back in NFL history to have consecutive 200-yard games.<\/p>\n

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His rushing total alone was 172 yards more than the 217 that Hubbard had in the first four games as the starter.<\/p>\n

“I believe in full transparency,” coach Dave Canales said when pressed about who might start. “I believe in having these conversations early on to talk about what it may look like and give the guys the benefit of the doubt to say, ‘OK, let’s look at the situation that we currently are in. Let’s deal with the facts and let’s move forward from there.’<\/p>\n

“I don’t like to paint myself into a box to say a guy can’t lose his job to injury. That’s a dangerous spot to put yourself in when a person shows you what they can do.”<\/p>\n

Pushed further about whether Dowdle had earned the right to start, Canales said that he’s “earned the right to help this team, and he will.”<\/p>\n

Canales said the coaching staff will “find a way to do that,” but didn’t give details.<\/p>\n

Dowdle and Hubbard made it clear it didn’t matter who started.<\/p>\n

“We’re both very talented players,” Hubbard said. “I can’t say what it’s going to look like exactly or how it’s going to be. I’m not the coach. But obviously, two great backs. Anytime you can put us on the field, let’s do it.”<\/p>\n

Dowdle was equally humble about who gets the ball first, saying it doesn’t matter who starts “as long as we all are getting the ball and things like that … helping the team win.”<\/p>\n

Dowdle said there are benefits to having both backs play, even though both admitted the more repetitions a back has, the easier it is to get in a rhythm.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to allow us both to be fresh throughout the whole game,” Dowdle said. “We’ve seen the past two games. I’ve cramped up late.”<\/p>\n

Hubbard was listed as limited Wednesday in his first practice in more than two weeks.<\/p>\n

“He’s got a real focused look in his eyes,” Canales said. “He’s hungry and can’t wait to get back out there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David NewtonOct 15, 2025, 05:45 PM ET CloseDavid Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-227609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}