Jonathon Brooks sits one chair—is one heartbeat away, as they’d say—short of my middle-round running back presidency. If I’m all the way honest, it’s Seattle’s Jadarian Price who still gets my vote, there. But this is a Jonathon Brooks hype-piece! So, how’s this: Every other back in this neighborhood falls way behind JB. I rank him 70th overall, nearly 10 selections ahead of his 79.7 ADP. Even after all the vultures out there ruined the fun and skyrocketed him from the tenth round, I remain extremely bullish at the draft table.
Below, I break down why I think his situation and potential production profile point to fine middle-round investment in your fantasy drafts this season.
Jonathon Brooks 2026 fantasy football outlook
You could have seen it in the tea leaves last season as one of the likelier eventualities that Brooks’ summer might go wildfire with post-hype hype. It did. He entered 2026 camp fully cleared and fully healthy—finally and for once—after having torn the same ACL twice within 13 months. They ramped him up toward the end of July, when he absorbed contact during his first padded practice, and finally reached full speed. Game speed. His cuts looked breezy. His burst had bounce. Carolina then started him as RB1 in a preseason game after Chuba Hubbard hurt his hamstring in camp, and the hype train hasn’t been seen back at the station since. The path to regular-season touches was within our grasp.
Brooks’ preseason line that week was plenty modest—nothing Stribling-esque: eight carries, 23 yards, one touchdown, and a nine-yard reception. The way Canales deployed him spoke volumes, however, when you isolate the snap count and manufactured touches. Brooks had the ball on four of nine first-team snaps against Buffalo. He then, the next week, handled nearly every starting snap against Jacksonville, and finished a drive with a successful goal-line carry. Even Better: Carolina rested its offensive pillars during the preseason finale against the Texans, and that included Brooks. Organizational signaling if we’ve ever seen it.
And so now we’re left with the glorious resurrection of an exceptional prospect. Jonathon Brooks: the hopeful undead! Let’s not forget: Brooks produced 1,139 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns, and 6.1 yards per carry during his final Texas season. Via the passing game, he added 25 catches, 286 yards, and another score. Look under the hood: his 3.9 yards after contact per attempt means he’s always been one of the ’24 draft class’s most explosive athletes, both in isolation and in space. And—more organizational telling—Carolina still made him the first back selected in 2024. Even with the ACL, they traded up for pick 46. Traded up!
The lack of production profile and robust injury pedigree remain the universal and totally legitimate argument against wanting him on your squad. Indeed, Brooks has only ever played in three NFL games. He’s handled a mere 12 touches. We’re shooting craps a little, here. Because certainly another early injury would make the historical sample feel prophetic in a J.K. Dobbins way. A we-should’ve-known way. It would likely be the dagger to any hopes he’d have a ceiling as an NFL feature back. We’d then look like fools, because grabbing him in the seventh round might sink our crucial middle-round advantage come midseason, and we know the risk.
Riskier still! As far as the roster goes, it’s important I note: Chuba Hubbard remains atop Carolina’s depth chart as of this writing. His hamstring’s healing just fine, apparently; he, too, rested with the starters during the preseason finale, and expects to return for Week 1. Carolina committed to him, after all, to the tune of a four-year extension not that long ago. There’s a little too much job security there for me to think Brooks could ever take over as a full-time RB1 with Hubbard healthy.
As such, Jadarian Price remains my preferred middle-round back. Quite simply, his first-round NFL Draft capital and September volume both carry less of a looming injury shadow over them. Brooks comes next, and the gap between the two is small. I drafted him around pick 70. Just don’t reach for him in the fifth round, please. That feels too much.
