Panthers HC Dave Canales explains decision to sideline RB Jonathon Brooks for 2025 season
Panthers HC Dave Canales explains decision to sideline RB Jonathon Brooks for 2025 season
The Carolina Panthers are hoping that a lost season will help kickstart a promising future for running back Jonathon Brooks.
On Thursday, the team placed the 21-year-old Brooks on the physically unable to perform list—a move that has effectively ended his entire 2025 campaign. The decision comes in the middle of his recovery from an ACL tear he sustained back in December.
Head coach Dave Canales, after wrapping up the final practice of rookie minicamp on Saturday, explained why the Panthers went down this route so early.
"It really just allows him to focus on what he's working on—which is full health, strength, best shape of his life to give him the best chance for when he comes back to us, he's running on all cylinders, that he doesn't have to think about anything. He can just play football and enjoy the game," Canales stated. "And that's really what this is about. It's about him just being able to have a clear focus on what the goal is."
Brooks is now on the comeback trail from his second torn ACL in as many years. He already missed the first 10 games of the 2024 season in healing up from his first tear, which occurred while playing for the University of Texas Longhorns in November of 2023.
The Panthers, despite the injury, still traded up to select Brooks in the second round of the 2024 draft.
He went on to appear in just three games, totaling 22 rushing yards on nine carries and 23 receiving yards on three catches.
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