Team news: Pittsburgh Steelers | Page 2

The Panthers moved Chuba Hubbard back into the starting lineup when the running back returned from a calf strain in Week 7, but it sounds like Rico Dowdle may be returning to the role he filled while Hubbard is out.

Dowdle ran eight times for 54 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Bills while Hubbard had 12 carries for 34 yards and a touchdown. Dowdle also led the team in rushing in Week 7 and he posted 472 yards from scrimmage in his two starts earlier this season.

On Monday, head coach Dave Canales said that Dowdle has been “exceptional” and that conversations about how to handle the timeshare in the backfield will “definitely” be taking place in the coming days, the story said. It's hard to ignore what Dowdle has done and it sounds like the team admits that as well. Dowdle has been the better fantasy play between the two backs, and that will be especially true if he sees more touches.

Dave Canales plans to continue with two back approach with Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle. Two players he says he can trust.

The duo were fairly close in snaps, Hubbard had 38 to Dowdle's 33, and in touches, Dowdle had 18 to Hubbard's 16, and that should remain similar at least for another week. While it's not ideal for fantasy owners of either back, with Bryce Young out this week and Andy Dalton filling in, both backs should have enough fantasy value for lineups - at least until there becomes some kind of separation.

Canales says Chuba Hubbard is good to go.

Related Players: Rico Dowdle, Trevor Etienne

After two massive performances, Dowdle is incredibly likely to have the RB1 role with Hubbard being eased back in, which keeps him as a strong fantasy play. We'll have to see how things play out for the rest of the season.

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.

"Arrow pointed up" for CB Joey Porter Jr. (hamstring), OLB Alex Highsmith (ankle) and RB Jaylen Warren (knee).

Related players: Kenneth Gainwell

Warren looks like he's good to go for Week 6 and will likely still give away some touches to Gainwell, who filled in nicely two weeks ago when the team played overseas.

Jaylen Warren getting work in to start the week.

Related players: Kenneth Gainwell, Kaleb Johnson

Warren was a scratch in Week 4, an early game overseas. Those who missed that news and left Warren in lineups ended up with a zero, while Gainwell had a big day filling in. We'll still need to see the practice report this week, but this news at least seems positive that Warren could return for Week 6, after the team's Week 5 bye. The Steelers have an early game on Sunday of Week 6, so owners will have time to adjust lineups.

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%.

The Colts are ruling out WR Alec Pierce, CB Kenny Moore II, RB Tyler Goodson and S Daniel Scott.

Pierce is a bit of a surprise seeing how he's been practicing, but he did not pass the concussion protocol, according to Shane Steichen. That's his second straight game.

Related Players: Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs

In a follow-up question with Shane Steichen, he said "working through that" regarding Adonai Mitchell playing this week, which is all the more interesting with Pierce out. It's possible we see a condensed target tree with Pittman, Downs, and Tyler Warren taking the vast majority of the work. Pittman is a WR2 candidate, Warren an obvious TE1 and Downs would move up into a WR4 role for managers searching for WR help.

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.