Team news: Carolina Panthers | Page 1

For any worried Panthers fans out there, Jonathon Brooks seems to be moving well.

Related players: Chuba Hubbard

The video is about 28 seconds of Brooks working off to the side in practice, which has been a recent trend. He does appear to be moving fine in the video. Gaskins said HC Dave Canales and the team will evaluate the tape after practice and that we'd likely know more Wednesday when initial injury reports are released.

Dave Canales: "Very optimistic" that RB Jonathon Brooks will be available for Week 1 vs. the Bears.

Related Players: Chuba Hubbard, Trevor Etienne

Canales’ optimism mostly removes the immediate concern created by Brooks’ unexplained soreness. Carolina has indicated that Brooks and Hubbard will form a committee when both are healthy, but Brooks’ 11-spot advantage over ADP reflects his superior upside within that arrangement.

Canales: If Chuba Hubbard is good to go, it will be RB by committee (with Jonathan Brooks) in Week 1.

Hubbard has been dealing with a hamstring injury and is looking to get healthy before the start of the season. It shouldn't be a surprise the team is going to use both backs, but it's possible one emerges as the leader. That's something we'll likely have to wait and see on. For our money, we have Brooks ranked higher on our RB list, but we all know about the major knee injuries over the past three seasons. It looks like Brooks is finally healthy and the team may ease him into a bigger workload early in the season. If he can survive that, Brooks should have more fantasy value for the long term.

The Panthers have made it official with Darren Waller.

Carolina announced on Monday that Waller has signed with the club.

It was reported last week that the veteran tight end had agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

Related players: Ja'Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble

Waller, 33, came out of retirement to play for the Dolphins last season. He caught 24 passes for 283 yards with six touchdowns in nine games. The touchdowns put Waller on the fantasy radar despite averaging just over two catches a game. Waller could again be a red zone target in Carolina and could slide in ahead of Sanders, who was a nice prospect but missed four games in 2025 and averaged less than 15 receiving yards per game. Waller is more of a later-round TE2 option to take a chance on.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard has a hamstring injury. He’s week to week, per Dave Canales.

Related Players: Jonathon Brooks, Trevor Etienne

This clears more room for Brooks, who has already almost matched his teammate's ADP, to make a case for more early-season looks. We've already seen injuries force Hubbard to cede work to Rico Dowdle, and if Brooks is healthy, he is a far better talent than Dowdle. Draft Hubbard with caution, while Brooks continues to slide up the RB3 rankings.

The Carolina Panthers and free agent tight end Darren Waller reached agreement Wednesday on a one-year deal, his agency announced.

The 33-year-old playmaker spent last season with the Miami Dolphins working with new Panthers associate head coach/offensive specialist Darrell Bevell, who was Miami's passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach.

Related Players: Ja'Tavion Sanders

It would be easy to brush this one off, but that's what we tried to do last year before Waller scored six times in nine games in an oft-injured season. At the least, this lowers the floor for Sanders, who was already down in TE streaming territory. Assuming Waller is healthy heading into the season, it will be difficult to plug either TE into lineups.

TE Ja'Tavion Sanders is playing tonight after an ankle injury. Back-to-back catches to start the game.

Related Players: Tommy Tremble, Mitchell Evans

Sanders seeing immediate involvement is encouraging after last year’s season-ending injury, but Carolina’s pass-catching competition remains open. Sanders is currently TE45 and No. 246 overall in the 4for4 rankings, putting him firmly in deep-league territory.

Panthers rookie WR Chris Brazzell will undergo season-ending surgery on his torn LCL, as @josephperson reported. Brazzell injured his knee during Wednesday’s practice.

Related Players: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, John Metchie

We posted yesterday that Brazzell could miss "up to" 8 weeks, and, well, that initial report was clearly too optimistic. Legette now has a clear runway to lock down the WR3 role in Carolina, but that shouldn't give us enough confidence to push him into our draft boards. In addition to being obviously terrible news for Brazzell himself, this could also impact McMillan's season-long ability to line up on the inside more often, as the rookie was slated to stress the defense as a vertical X receiver had he won the WR3 job. Now it comes down to a Legette breakout to add some further legitimacy to this passing attack.

Panthers rookie WR Chris Brazzell II suffered a moderate LCL tear in his left knee in practice & he’s expected to miss up to 8 weeks, per league source.

Brazzell will get a second opinion. He’s competing for WR3 role. NFL Week 1 is 6 1/2 weeks away.

Related Players: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, John Metchie

This might be Legette's last chance to prove he should be suiting up for the Panthers. In addition to being bad news for Brazzell himself, this could also impact McMillan's early-season ability to line up on the inside more often, as the rookie was slated to stress the defense as a vertical X receiver had he won the WR3 job. Brazzel's best ball validity takes a hit.

The veteran quarterback has chosen to retire. The Panthers placed him on the reserve/retired list on Wednesday. The 31-year-old Will Grier was originally a third-round pick of the Panthers in 2019, and signed a one-year deal here before the draft. He has also spent time with the Cowboys, Bengals, Patriots, Chargers, Eagles, and the Cowboys again. He appeared in two regular-season games, both here during his rookie season.

Related Players: Bryce Young, Kenny Pickett

The Panthers will now hold Young, Kenny Pickett, and undrafted rookie Haynes King heading into training camp. Pickett is an interesting hold/waiver target in very deep SuperFlex Dynasty leagues.