Team news: Carolina Panthers | Page 2

Has Rico Dowdle earned the right to be the Panthers starting RB? Dave Canales: "We’ll see."

Related players: Chuba Hubbard

Dowdle has been on fire over the last two weeks, so it would be hard to take the ball away from him when Hubbard returns to action. That said, Hubbard has certainly had his share of success over the last few seasons as well. Ultimately, it's hard not to envision a committee situation when Hubbard does return. It should be noted that Hubbard didn't practice last week leading up to Week 6, so there is a chance he'll be eased back into things slowly, so we'll have to monitor the practice report this week. The Panthers travel to take on the Jets in an earlier Sunday game.

Official Panthers injury report doesn’t come out for about an hour but it doesn’t look promising for RB Chuba Hubbard (calf) and RT Taylor Moton (elbow) to play Sunday against the Cowboys. Neither has practiced this week.

Related Players: Rico Dowdle, Trevor Etienne

This is setting up as another Dowdle week, and it will come against his former team, who happen to rank 30th in RB aFPA. If Hubbard does miss, lock Dowdle in as a fringe RB1, and even if he doesn't, Dowdle should be considered a top-24 lock.

Eagles RB Saquon Barkley was listed as DNP Monday with a knee injury.

Related players: Will Shipley, A.J. Dillon, Tank Bigsby

This will be one to watch on a short week against the Giants. Barkley hasn't been much of a factor in the run game this season after going over 2,000 yards last year. He did catch a TD pass in Week 5's loss to the Broncos. We'll keep an eye on this one. If Barkley can't go on a short week, Dillon and Shipley will likely split the workload and Bigsby could be a factor as well.

With Chuba Hubbard day to day this week and Rico Dowdle having a career day vs. MIA, Dave Canales says Panthers view it as having two good backs. "It's a good problem."

Fantasy owners will totally disagree that it's a good problem. There is still a chance the Panthers could ease Hubbard along and he'll still miss Week 6, but owners will want to see how practice goes this week. Dowdle has likely earned himself more touches even when Hubbard is back to 100%.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard, who has been dealing with a calf injury the last couple of weeks and hasn't practiced this week, is expected to miss Sunday's game against the Dolphins. Rico Dowdle is the team's backup.

Related Players: Trevor Etienne

Dowdle should make for a volume-based RB2/3 but he has slightly less juice than Hubbard, and could see a bit more Etienne than we've been used to. The rookie could be in the RB4 range, but should be reserved as a desperation play in deep leagues.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard and WR Tetairoa McMillan are both expected to play Sunday against the Patriots.

Both were listed as questionable with calf injuries and were limited Thursday and Friday but are trending in the right direction. The Panthers are dealing with injuries in the passing game with WR Xavier Leggette and TE Ja’Tavion also injured. Hubbard is RB20 and McMillan is WR21 this week.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard is questionable for Sunday vs. the Patriots due to a calf injury, and WR Xavier Legette has been ruled out.

Related Players: Rico Dowdle, Trevor Etienne, Tetairoa McMillan, Hunter Renfrow, Brycen Tremayne

If Hubbard is out there, we'd still expect him to put up borderline RB2/3 numbers, but if he misses Dowdle could operate in the RB4 range.

Legette's continued absence shouldn't have much of an impact on the rest of the wide receiver room. McMillan is the only option we should be considered in fantasy.

Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan did not practice today due to a calf injury.

Related Players: Hunter Renfrow, Brycen Tremayne, David Moore

With Xavier Legette potentially sidelined and likely bad, missing McMillan this week would leave their pass-catchers in utter disarray. If TMac can go, he should still be locked in as a WR2, but if he's sidelined, we should be trying to stream the Patriots D/ST, if we weren't already.

The Panthers got their first win of the season on Sunday, but they also reportedly lost tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders for a while.

Sanders injured his ankle during the fourth quarter of Carolina’s 30-0 win over the Falcons. Joseph Person of TheAthletic.com reports that tests showed Sanders suffered a high-ankle sprain and is set to miss multiple weeks as a result.

Related players: Tommy Tremble, Mitchell Evans, James Mitchell

Sanders had two catches for 11 yards in Sunday’s win. He has 11 catches for 92 yards so far this season. The story added Tremble and Evans saw time at tight end in Week 3. Mitchell was inactive for the game and has not appeared in a game this year.

Sources tell me Will Shipley does have a fractured rib and the move for Tank Bigsby is not only to add depth at the RB position but Bigsby can also help out on special teams including returning kicks...

Related players: Saquon Barkley, A.J. Dillon

Reports on Monday after the trade denied Shipley's rib injury was the reason for the deal, but it appears a fractured rib could cause him to miss time. This would better explain the trade for Bigsby. The Eagles did have a need for a kick returner however.