Chuba Hubbard was one of the great value plays in recent fantasy memory before falling apart a year later. Now the Carolina backfield has shuffled again, and the market has swung hard in another direction. The setup starting to form looks awfully familiar. Fantasy managers may want to take a closer look at the veteran.
Should You Draft Chuba Hubbard in Fantasy Football?
Hubbard, the Carolina Panthers running back, has been around for a while, but it still feels like the fantasy community doesn’t know how to view him year in and year out.
As of early September, Hubbard has an ADP of 87.4. His PFN rank is 86th. His projected points per game in 2026 is 10.5. He is ranked as the RB29 in preliminary rankings.
All of this is coming after a pretty disappointing 2025 in which Hubbard had just 6.4 fantasy points per game, 1 rushing touchdown, and 0 rushing attempts of 20-plus yards. He compensated with solid receiving production. He had 3 touchdowns but was mediocre overall and ended up hemorrhaging carries to Rico Dowdle after suffering a calf injury midway through the season. He averaged over 13 points per game in the first six weeks but averaged just 6.1 carries per game in the final nine weeks of the regular season.
More recently, Hubbard has reportedly been dealing with a notable hamstring injury. He’s reportedly on track to play in Week 1 and split carries with Jonathon Brooks, but that injury does invite some uncertainty.
Brooks is a mystery box, but Chuba’s returns have been mediocre more often than they’ve been exceptional. He’s not an overly efficient back year in and year out. Without much touchdown volume or broken-tackle ability, there’s not a ton of upside with him either. He only has one career top-15, let alone top-25, finish, which occurred in 2024.
As a runner, he’s still explosive, has solid vision and footwork, and he is a respectable threat after the catch on screens, wheels, and swing routes. The entire offense benefits from a growing offensive line that ranked in the top half of the league last year in PFN’s OL impact metric. In fact, Monroe Freeling as the first-round pick helps elevate that.
But the main question is whether or not Hubbard can fend off a healthy Brooks. The Panthers eventually favored Hubbard’s counterpart over him, and Hubbard himself may have a delayed ramp-up in 2026 because of the injury.
Hubbard is a worthwhile target if you’re banking on injuries narrowing the workload in Carolina, or if you want to handcuff the Carolina backfield as a whole behind that strong offensive line. But in my opinion, if you’re looking for one Carolina RB to target, Hubbard is the player who’s more susceptible to injury risk. While Brooks provides no reference point to compare at this stage, Hubbard was extremely inefficient in 2025 to the point that it affected his role. I’m fading Hubbard personally at his ADP and would only take him if he presented an exceptional value outside the top 100 picks.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Chuba Hubbard’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe.
Availability has been a strength of Hubbard through five NFL seasons (6 career DNPs), so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he and the team navigated an August hamstring issue to have him ready for this week.
That said, when you pair the missed time with the summer excellence of Jonathon Brooks, I think it’s pretty safe to pencil in Carolina’s RB1 for fewer than the 19 touches he had to open 2025.
Who gets the high-leverage work? Who runs more routes?
We have more questions than answers at this point, and that has me not willing to guess blind. I have Hubbard (my answer to the two questions above) ranked ahead of Brooks this week, but I’m not saying it with my chest. This could turn to a pass-centric plan rather quickly, and given that Brooks caught 25 balls for 286 yards in his final year at Texas, I fear that he works his way into a drive-by-drive role that compromises Hubbard’s primary path to value: volume.
I still like Hubbard for the season. Brooks may impress, but I’m not sure what his touch ceiling looks like, and betting against his body with time is the stance I’ll take for now. I value Hubbard like I do Tony Pollard: boring but effective enough to matter more than the industry gave him credit for this offseason.
START PREPARING: PFN’s FREE Fantasy Draft Simulator
Where Hubbard Ranks Among 2026 Running Backs
- Jadarian Price | SEA
- Bucky Irving | TB
- Jaylen Warren | PIT
- Rhamondre Stevenson | NE
- TreVeyon Henderson | NE
- Chuba Hubbard | CAR
- Tony Pollard | TEN
- Kenny Gainwell | TB
- Jonathon Brooks | CAR
- Jacory Croskey-Merritt | WAS
- MarShawn Lloyd | GB
Compare him against the rest of the board in PFN's Full PPR Running Back Rankings.
