Carolina Panthers RB Jonathon Brooks’ second NFL season ends before it begins
Jonathon Brooks won’t suit up for the Panthers in 2025.
Carolina announced amid a wave of roster cuts Thursday that Brooks, the second-year running back who suffered a season-ending knee injury late last season, has been added to the Physically Unable to Perform list.
Doing so now, according to league rules, prevents him from playing this upcoming season.
The news shouldn’t necessarily come as a shock considering Brooks tore his ACL in Week 14 of last season, after taking a handoff in the first quarter against the Eagles and tumbling to the grass untouched. The same injury to the same ligament in the same knee occurred about a year prior, in his final year at Texas.
“My heart is with him,” head coach Dave Canales told reporters after Brooks’ injury last season. “The amount of hard work that he put in to get back to this place, to get him to play. So he’s heartbroken. I’m heartbroken. The whole group is just feeling for him. So we’ll be here every step of the way with him, supporting him through this journey. He knows how to do this. He’ll be able to attack it.”
The 2024 second-round draft pick spent the bulk of his rookie season on the sideline. He spent training camp and the preseason on the non-football injury list and was sidelined during the regular season until Week 12 against the Kansas City Chiefs, where he had a limited but promising debut.
He produced 22 rushing yards and 23 receiving yards on 12 total touches in three contests in 2024.
The Panthers prepared for such a moment this offseason when they signed Rico Dowdle to a one-year deal, fresh off a 1,000-yard season with the Dallas Cowboys. The team also drafted Georgia running back Trevor Etienne in the fourth round of this year’s draft and retained Raheem Blackshear, who’s carved out a role on the team as a returner.
The team also has Emani Bailey on its roster and is bringing in rookie undrafted free agent Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams for rookie camp this weekend.
Chuba Hubbard, the starting running back who had his 1,000-plus yard season validated by a lucrative contract extension, is still expected to be the starter.
With the Brooks decision, the Panthers now have 62 players on their 2025 roster. That number does not include the eight players the team drafted last month, so 70 roster spots are spoken for. The NFL’s offseason roster limit is 90.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM.
