Did anyone have Chuba Hubbard as one of the NFL’s top 32 running backs on their bingo card going into last season?
Well, if you did, mark it off!
Pro Football Focus fantasy contributor Thomas Valentine recently ranked the league’s best 32 rushers heading into the 2024 campaign. In at No. 28 is Hubbard, whose spot on the list certainly wasn’t an expected one around this time last year.
Valentine writes:
Like Singletary, Hubbard was destined to be the backup in Carolina after the team brought in Miles Sanders on a big contract, but Hubbard took on the role of lead back after Sanders struggled to make an impact.
He carried the ball 238 times for a career-high 902 yards and five touchdowns while earning a strong 77.2 grade. Whether or not Hubbard is the starter in 2024 remains to be seen, but his 2023 performance should give him the nod ahead of Sanders.
Sanders, who inked a four-year, $25.4 million deal last spring, ran for 3.3 yards per carry—the third-lowest mark amongst all qualifying players in 2023. Hubbard took advantage of his teammate’s slow start, grabbing the starting job a little over a month into the season and parlaying it into a career-high 902 rushing yards.
Unfortunately for Hubbard, however, that may not be enough to secure his place as a starter once again. The Panthers are likely to feature rookie Jonathon Brooks, whom they selected with the 46th overall pick of the 2024 draft.
