Nearly everything went right for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
They were Week 2 winners over the Atlanta Falcons to pick up their first victory of the campaign, a 34-3 dominating performance.
Bryce Young looked like a franchise QB. Devin Lloyd made play after play as their new star linebacker.
Only one thing really went wrong: a late injury to Jonathon Brooks.
The Panthers have been relying much more on Chuba Hubbard, but it still wasn’t ideal to see Brooks leave the game and not return.
Jonathon Brooks Injury Update
Panthers head coach Dave Canales spoke at his Monday press conference about Brooks.
He noticed that it’s a groin injury, but that Brooks is still undergoing tests.
The Panthers haven’t made a formal determination on severity yet.
Dave Canales: Jonathon Brooks undergoing tests on his groin injury. Says team still gathering information on severity.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) September 21, 2026
Brooks headed to the Panthers’ locker room in the fourth quarter on Sunday. He had first gone to the blue medical tent, then went with trainers for further examination.
“Jonathon Brooks is walking slowly to the locker room with a towel over his head,” The Athletic’s Joe Person wrote on X during Sunday’s game.
“RB Jonathon Brooks walked to the tunnel with a towel on his head with a trio of staff members,” ESPN’s Mike Kaye wrote on X.
The towel-on-head detail caught the attention of both beat writers, for whatever that’s worth.
Brooks has a long injury history. He was likely just disappointed that somehow there was another one.
This season, the Panthers had cleared the runway for him to be at least RB2 behind Chuba Hubbard — and if he stayed healthy, maybe he could push for the top job.
But again, Brooks is hurt. It’s not much of a surprise at this point.
Panthers’ RB Usage
Before exiting Sunday’s game, Brooks ran the football five times and picked up 16 yards.
He also was targeted once and caught it, but it was for negative-5 yards.
It was a lot less usage than Chuba Hubbard. Hubbard had 12 runs for 53 yards and two catches for 11 yards and a touchdown at the time Brooks went to the locker room.
Hubbard had gotten the overwhelming majority of the work in Week 1 ahead of Brooks, too. There was some speculation that Brooks would get more as he proved he could stay healthy, but then he failed to show that.
The Panthers had one more RB on the active roster in Week 2: AJ Dillon, the bruising veteran formerly of the Packers and Eagles.
They also have two running backs on the practice squad who could conceptually be elevated in future weeks if needed: Anthony Tyus III and Ahmani Marshall.
The Panthers could also explore free agency if they feel they need a new backup for Hubbard.
It’s just a bummer for Brooks, and Carolina fans will be holding out hope that it isn’t too bad.
Jonathon Brooks Injury Update Leaves Questions for Panthers