Panthers share hopeful updates on Jalen Coker, Chuba Hubbard. Now decisions loom
Less than 24 hours after a confidence-instilling victory — one that saw a record comeback, a for-the-ages rushing performance and a play that nearly made the Panthers’ sideline tear up — head coach Dave Canales offered even more positive news:
Jalen Coker is nearly back.
“We’re going to open up Coker’s window,” Canales told reporters Monday, fresh off the team’s win over the Dolphins.
Canales, specifically, was saying that his second-year wide receiver will begin practicing with the rest of the team for the first time this year after spending the previous five weeks on the injured reserve.
“We’re going to throw some loads at him and kind of increase it each day to see where he’s at,” Canales continued. “We’ll make the best decision for Jalen and make the best decision for the team as we go forward through this week.”
Coker, a fan-favorite in part because of his remarkable story as undrafted free agent-turned-key playmaker for the Panthers, suffered a quad injury just before Week 1 of this season. The loss was brutal to Carolina’s wideout depth, particularly after the team traded away its other reliable slot option in Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings.
It prompted a whole bunch of roster decisions at the time. The most notable of which was Carolina’s signing of Hunter Renfrow, who a few days prior had been cut from the 53-man roster and considered retiring from football entirely.
Five weeks later, Coker is on his way to fully recovering from his quad injury and will begin practicing this week, Canales said. Officially, his 21-day practice window won’t open until Wednesday, when the team runs through its first practice of Week 6.
When asked if Coker will play this Sunday, Canales offered a shrug: “We’ll see.”
“I’ll be able to tell you after I see him on the field actually playing football,” Canales said. “(The training staff) has been doing a great job with him, monitoring his progress, his top speeds, his endurance. Just general physical conditioning for football. But now you gotta go play football to be able to prove that we can bring him out there.”
News of Coker’s potential return also comes with a decision to make, no doubt. How should the Panthers make room for Coker on the 53-man roster? Do they move Renfrow? Do they make Jimmy Horn Jr. inactive again after his debut — which was an impactful one at that? Do they experiment with other places on the roster?
They might not have to furnish an answer immediately. Once Coker’s 21-day practice window is open, he would still technically be on IR, according to league rules. That won’t change until he gets promoted to the active roster. In other words, if he doesn’t get activated, he doesn’t take up one of the team’s 53-man roster spots.
But such questions are on Canales’ mind nonetheless — even if he’s not quite ready to elaborate.
“Lots of thoughts,” Canales said, when asked about the roster implications Coker’s return brings. “But nothing that I want to get into right now.”
Jalen Coker can’t hide his excitement
Coker spoke to reporters after team meetings on Monday, and throughout the questioning, he tried hard to suppress a smile.
“I’m feeling great,” Coker said in front of his locker. “Obviously, you know, it’s exciting. I’m excited to get back out there and just play.”
Coker admitted that he’ll never “really know” about the state of his endurance — in other words, whether or not he’s in “football shape” — until he returns to individual and team drills this week. When asked if he feels like he’ll be able to play Sunday, he shrugged: “I have no idea.”
But there were plenty things he did, in fact, know:
He knows what these past few weeks on the sideline have felt like. “They’ve been upsetting for me, personally,” he said, because he wants to be out there contributing. He knows just how difficult his injury’s timing was; after all, the team traded Thielen just ahead of Week 1, and Coker was set to be his heir apparent at the Y receiver spot, just as he had been 12 months ago amid his rookie-year ascension.
He also knows what it’s been like watching quarterback Bryce Young battle the ups and downs of his third season in the NFL — and how special it was Sunday to see his fellow second-year receiver Xavier Legette play such a good game last week against the Dolphins.
What he doesn’t necessarily know? Who the fastest player on the Panthers is.
“You probably have to talk to X about that,” Coker said, when asked if Jimmy Horn is the fastest receiver on the team, smiling again. “I’d like to say I am. But they’re a little bit faster than me. Dan Chisena is also in that contest, too, for sure.”
An update on Chuba Hubbard’s status
The wide receiver group isn’t the only unit that Canales might need to take a look at this week. And that’s thanks to another key playmaker whose return might come in Week 6:
Running back Chuba Hubbard.
Canales told reporters that the Panthers are going to evaluate Hubbard “every day” to see where he’s at in his recovery from a calf injury that kept him sidelined during the Panthers’ Week 5 win over the Dolphins. If Hubbard does return, that could influence some other decisions.
After all, Hubbard’s backup Rico Dowdle had a career day this past Sunday. He took 23 carries for one touchdown and 206 yards — that’s 105 yards “above expected,” according to NFL Next Gen Stats — and added three catches for 28 yards in the receiving game.
There was a question earlier this year about whether Dowdle and Hubbard were playing enough individually to get into respective rhythms — and whether that impacted the Panthers’ rushing attack as a whole.
Hubbard, after all, was 11th in total carries last year (and that’s with missing the final two games). Going into Week 5, he was 21st with 53 carries, and that total took another dip this week. Pair that with a rough first four games on the ground as a team, and questions spawn — particularly when you compare that to Carolina’s rushing success Week 5.
But Canales said that he wasn’t going to draw any conclusions from Dowdle’s heavy work load and his big day.
“He and Rico, what I take from it is we have two good backs,” Canales said. “And so we’ll have to figure that out. That’s a good problem to have. But it’s something we have to work through.”
Dowdle is facing his old team in the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6. He told reporters after Sunday’s game that his opponents better “buckle up.”
Quick hits
— Rookie outside linebacker Nic Scourton has seen his playing time steadily increase in his brief NFL career over the past few weeks. And that didn’t change this past Sunday. He notched 33 snaps on defense — second-most among OLBs behind Pat Jones II — and delivered. According to advanced stats provided by Pro Football Focus, the rookie had a team-high defensive rating of 89.6, notching one QB pressure and one hurry, on top of having a nice day in coverage.
— Canales told reporters Monday that Dowdle requested the play call that yielded him his 53-yard run on Sunday. The running back wasn’t the only one who made requests to the coaches; defensive lineman Derrick Brown also asked for more pass rushing opportunities. Canales smiled when recalling those details: “I love the challenge. I told them, ‘I’m going to call this early. So you better do something with it.’ ... This is your offense. This is your defense. Your special teams unit. Can we have the pride to bring that type of energy — can it matter that much to you? ... It was a really cool moment.”
— Dolphins tight end Darren Waller had quite the first half — he notched five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. It felt, for a moment, like déjà vu. After all, the Panthers have struggled covering tight ends and running backs in the passing game all season. But Waller wasn’t targeted in the second half. Canales said it was largely a function of the team’s pass rush not allowing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to work through his progressions and get him the ball down field.
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM.
