Johnathon brooks

[strato]

BTW Brooks made his NFL debut November 24 last year.

 Very nearly 4 months later than the start of camp. If not 4 months - I didn’t look up camp dates but it is late July right? 

 

[Doc LRB]

Sure do hope he is back or at least trying to be back.  Was a great talent but so much talent is wasted because of injury.

[rmoneyg35]

13 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I don't think he will ever be more than a 3rd RB/special teams guy.

If we move on from Dowdle, we should definitely sign or draft a good NFL caliber RB.

I disagree but we will see. His brother is a good nfl RB, it’s in his dna. He played for a loaded Georgia team so his stats aren’t great but that’s because he shared snaps with other good RBs. Georgia has produced a lot of great RBs. Look at his scouting report, basically says while he doesn’t excel at any specific thing, he’s good at everything. Put him behind our offensive line and he should be able to produce.

[kungfoodude]

7 hours ago, rmoneyg35 said:

I disagree but we will see. His brother is a good nfl RB, it’s in his dna. He played for a loaded Georgia team so his stats aren’t great but that’s because he shared snaps with other good RBs. Georgia has produced a lot of great RBs. Look at his scouting report, basically says while he doesn’t excel at any specific thing, he’s good at everything. Put him behind our offensive line and he should be able to produce.

Yeah, I mean he was not special in very, very, VERY favorable circumstances in college and he has not really looked like anything more than a JAG here. It's possible that changes but it's not really important as a lower round pick. If he becomes a competent returner then the pick was worthwhile.

[theinstrumental]

I'm surprised at how little hope everyone has. Nick Chubb's first knee injury was completely devastating, his second was disgusting, and he's back in the NFL. Lost some burst, but at his age, that's not a surprise.

JK Dobbins' injury history is obscenely long; most notably, he blew a knee and an Achilles. He started most of the season. 

ACL's aren't the death sentence they used to be. Brooks is really young for an NFL player--he wasn't even born yet when Jake Delhomme took us to the Super Bowl. He'd be young for this upcoming draft class. There's a good shot he's back to contributing next year.

[PantherChris]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

Yeah, I mean he was not special in very, very, VERY favorable circumstances in college and he has not really looked like anything more than a JAG here. It's possible that changes but it's not really important as a lower round pick. If he becomes a competent returner then the pick was worthwhile.

For what all 3 touches?

[kungfoodude]

4 minutes ago, PantherChris said:

For what all 3 touches?

And his preseason play. Not an apples to apples but he has not done anything of note and I don't really expect him to. 

TBH, I thought we over drafted him. He was more of a 7th round/UDFA guy on my RB board.

[PantherChris]

5 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

And his preseason play. Not an apples to apples but he has not done anything of note and I don't really expect him to. 

TBH, I thought we over drafted him. He was more of a 7th round/UDFA guy on my RB board.

Dude he didnt play in pre season.....  he didnt practice at all with the team until the end of October. 

 

I do agree though.

[kungfoodude]

17 minutes ago, theinstrumental said:

I'm surprised at how little hope everyone has. Nick Chubb's first knee injury was completely devastating, his second was disgusting, and he's back in the NFL. Lost some burst, but at his age, that's not a surprise.

JK Dobbins' injury history is obscenely long; most notably, he blew a knee and an Achilles. He started most of the season. 

ACL's aren't the death sentence they used to be. Brooks is really young for an NFL player--he wasn't even born yet when Jake Delhomme took us to the Super Bowl. He'd be young for this upcoming draft class. There's a good shot he's back to contributing next year.

It's not common for a RB to recover from two ACL tears in the same knee. It's fairly rare. You are correct that it isn't the career ender that it used to be but there is also the fact that we appear to have largely moved on with the additions of Dowdle and Etienne. 

Dobbins is a very good example. He has basically missed 54% of his career regular season games since he came into the league in 2020. It will end up being 57% at the conclusion of this season. It's a big contributing factor to why he is on this third NFL team in 6 years. It's certainly possible that may be 4 by the beginning of next season.

I would say there is very little chance that Brooks ever contributes in any meaningful way in Carolina. Possibly with another team but I am extremely skeptical of his future here because of those injuries and because of the roster.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, PantherChris said:

Dude he didnt play in pre season.....  he didnt practice at all with the team until the end of October. 

 

I do agree though.

Well he somehow had 12 preseason carries for not playing. He also has 20 carries in the regular season, not three. He has actually played in about 7% of the offensive snaps for this regular season(33% of the special teams snaps).

This isn't stuff you have to make up, these are very easily referenced statistics, man.

[Mistuh Jones]

On 11/18/2025 at 8:34 PM, kungfoodude said:

I would imagine he likely gets released after TC.

Sadly, that would be most likely  

[kungfoodude]

9 minutes ago, Mistuh Jones said:

Sadly, that would be most likely  

Yeah, I am not wishing it on the dude but even the move to draft Etienne was a pretty obvious sign they plan on moving on. 

So, if we re-sign Dowdle(unsure this will happen) either Etienne or Brooks isn't gonna make the roster. 

If we don't re-sign Dowdle, does anyone really thing we will go into a season with Chuba backed up by Brooks and Etienne?? That would be....pretty unwise.

[theinstrumental]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

It's not common for a RB to recover from two ACL tears in the same knee. It's fairly rare. You are correct that it isn't the career ender that it used to be but there is also the fact that we appear to have largely moved on with the additions of Dowdle and Etienne. 

Dobbins is a very good example. He has basically missed 54% of his career regular season games since he came into the league in 2020. It will end up being 57% at the conclusion of this season. It's a big contributing factor to why he is on this third NFL team in 6 years. It's certainly possible that may be 4 by the beginning of next season.

I would say there is very little chance that Brooks ever contributes in any meaningful way in Carolina. Possibly with another team but I am extremely skeptical of his future here because of those injuries and because of the roster.

It's rare enough for a running back to tear the same ACL twice. There's not much of a sample size on the recoveries. And of course Dobbins has missed a lot of time--he was injured twice. That number will drop as his career continues, and even if it doesn't, that doesn't necessarily mean it has anything to do with the prior injuries. Dobbins just started and played well for a playoff team all year until he was injured by a hip-drop tackle. Surely his ACL recoveries didn't contribute to his completely random foot injury caused by an illegal tackle?

Again, I'm confused why everyone is being so definitive that there's 'very little chance' of any meaningful contribution ever when the greatest counterpoint ever played for us. Thomas Davis tore the same knee over and over again and was basically fine.

As for the roster-building stuff, we'll see what happens with Chuba and Dowdle at the end of the year, but Etienne's not going to factor into this. Either Brooks comes back, in which case we've already seen more from him than we have from Etienne, or he doesn't. But Etienne's not forcing him off the team. If anything, Etienne's current role is his absolute floor.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, theinstrumental said:

It's rare enough for a running back to tear the same ACL twice. There's not much of a sample size on the recoveries. And of course Dobbins has missed a lot of time--he was injured twice. That number will drop as his career continues, and even if it doesn't, that doesn't necessarily mean it has anything to do with the prior injuries. Dobbins just started and played well for a playoff team all year until he was injured by a hip-drop tackle. Surely his ACL recoveries didn't contribute to his completely random foot injury caused by an illegal tackle?

Again, I'm confused why everyone is being so definitive that there's 'very little chance' of any meaningful contribution ever when the greatest counterpoint ever played for us. Thomas Davis tore the same knee over and over again and was basically fine.

As for the roster-building stuff, we'll see what happens with Chuba and Dowdle at the end of the year, but Etienne's not going to factor into this. Either Brooks comes back, in which case we've already seen more from him than we have from Etienne, or he doesn't. But Etienne's not forcing him off the team. If anything, Etienne's current role is his absolute floor.

I can't speak to the sample size on the double ACL tears, I could look into it but I am unsure about the quality of data I am able to find. Anecdotally, I don't think that is common for sure. 

Well one giant red flag for Dobbins is that of the 3-5 serious injuries he has had in his NFL career, 100% of them have been the same leg. That's not good and it doesn't bode well for his longevity at all.

As I have said several hundred times in this forum(in this case it will be in regards to Thomas Davis), outliers are memorable for a reason....because they are outliers. You don't base your decision making on outliers. That's.....stupid.

I am also not high on Etienne but he does play special teams and Brooks does not. Currently, I couldn't blame anyone in the FO for choosing a 3rd string RB that can play special teams and has actually played more than 23 career snaps in the NFL in 2+ seasons. 

I am not advocating for cutting Brooks but I don't think it's a player I would consider for anything other than a 3rd string role(and likely competing for it, at that) if I am building a roster for 2026. It's not like they are going to get to see him at 100% in 2026.