Chuba Hubbard News: Appears set to lose work to Dowdle

Head coach Dave Canales hinted Monday that Hubbard is likely to cede more carries to Rico Dowdle moving forward rather than splitting the backfield work evenly with Dowdle, Steve Reed of the Associated Press reports. "Chuba has meant a lot to this organization and certainly to the identity that we want to build and we wanted to give him the opportunity to go out there and to continue to impact our team in a positive way," Canales said. "But we cannot ignore the fact that Rico has been exceptional. ... We love tempo and violence that he is running with. These are things we are looking back on the last four games and really taking a snapshot of what has been successful for us."

Carolina has more of a financial commitment to Hubbard after inking him to a four-year, $33.2 million extension last November, but the stellar results the Panthers have gotten from Dowdle over the past four weeks have made it difficult for Canales to justify moving forward with a two-pronged approach to the backfield. While Hubbard was sidelined Weeks 5 and 6 win a calf injury, Dowdle racked up 473 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in wins over the Dolphins and Cowboys, and Dowdle has continued to thrive while being used in a timeshare with Hubbard over the past two games. Between Weeks 7 and 8, Dowdle has averaged 5.3 yards on his 25 carries, more than doubling up Hubbard's average of 2.5 yards on 26 totes. Hubbard isn't expected to disappear from Carolina's game plans completely and could even continue to make ceremonial starts, but Canales' comments indicate that Dowdle is being viewed as the team's clear top option on the ground heading into Sunday's game in Green Bay.