Fantasy Upside
By season's end, Chuba Hubbard and shrugged off veteran counterpart Miles Sanders to emerge as the No. 1 back option. Coming out of the Week 7 bye, Hubbard would handle 61.1% of the team's backfield rushes until the end of the year, the 10th-highest mark in the league. Over that span, he was fantasy's RB27 in half-PPR points per game (10.7), cracking double-digit points in eight-of-eleven games. If rookie Jonathon Brooks has issues recovering from his torn ACL, Hubbard could offer RB2/3 production.
Fantasy Downside
Even with his increased role in the second half of 2023, his YPC (3.79) and YPRR (0.79) were still below league average on an offense that could never seem to gather its footing. The team looks to be in a better spot heading into this season, but a first-round (Xavier Legette) and free-agent WR (Diontae Johnson) should start to shrink Hubbard's uninspiring touches. If Brooks is good to go by Week 1, Hubbard could be nearly phased out.
2024 Bottom Line
Chuba Hubbard is a boring but possibly needed addition to fantasy squads in the later rounds, particularly if employing a Zero RB build. If you've loaded up on RB earlier in the draft, though, his upside is far too limited to stock up your portfolio on him. The Panthers traded up into the second round to add a spark to their offense, and it's very likely that they want to give Brooks an outsized share as early as humanly possible. Hubbard is a low-floor/low-ceiling addition in 2024.