{"id":249407,"date":"2025-10-03T10:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=249407"},"modified":"2025-10-03T10:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:11:09","slug":"chuba-hubbard-injury-update-panthers-rbs-status-updated-ahead-of-week-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/10\/03\/chuba-hubbard-injury-update-panthers-rbs-status-updated-ahead-of-week-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuba Hubbard Injury Update: Panthers RB&#8217;s Status Updated Ahead of Week 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard is battling a calf injury, and it appears as though the former fourth-round pick will not suit up in Week 5&#8217;s battle against the Miami Dolphins. While nothing is official, <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1974063126120370348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NFL Network&#8217;s Ian Rapoport<\/a> recently tweeted that Hubbard is &#8220;expected to miss Sunday&#8217;s game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248779\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248779\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-248779\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Chuba Hubbard Calf Injury\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/Chuba-Hubbard-Calf-Injury-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-248779\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 21, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard (30) carries the ball during the second half against the Atlanta Falcons at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Breaking: Chuba Hubbard Likely to Miss Week 5 With Calf Injury<\/h2>\n<p>With Chuba Hubbard likely sidelined due to injury, the Carolina Panthers will send Rico Dowdle to handle starting duties. A former undrafted free agent, the South Carolina product broke out for the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. Taking over for a departed Tony Pollard, the veteran finished the season with 1,079 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 235 carries. He parlayed this success into a one-year deal with the Panthers and now has a chance to justify that investment. So far this season, Dowdle has recorded 83 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/03\/30\/2025-nfl-draft-profile-trevor-etienne-georgia-rb\/\" target=\"_self\">Rookie running back Trevor Etienne<\/a> could also see a larger role in the offense. The Georgia product has played sparingly, recording eight carries for 37 yards on the season, with most of that work coming late in the team&#8217;s blowout loss to the New England Patriots. In that contest, he recorded 33 yards on seven carries.<\/p>\n<p>Chuba Hubbard originally entered the league as a fourth-round pick in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">2021 NFL Draft<\/a>. Selected by the Carolina Panthers, Hubbard was supposed to be the primary backup to Christian McCaffrey and, later, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/04\/start-em-sit-em-week-14-panthers-jonathon-brooks-and-more\/\" target=\"_self\">second-round pick Jonathon Brooks<\/a>. However, Hubbard saw plenty of playing time thanks to a barrage of injuries and ultimately earned a full-time starting job. To date, he has recorded 3,392 yards and 22 touchdowns on 808 attempts.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Cory Knowlton &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard will likely miss Week 5&#8217;s battle against the Miami Dolphins with a calf injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":248780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,30,4],"tags":[7995,7661],"class_list":["post-249407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-panthers","category-dolphins","tag-chuba-hubbard","tag-panthers-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249409,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407\/revisions\/249409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}