Canadian RB Hubbard optimistic better times lie ahead for Panthers

It was a breakout season, but not one Chuba Hubbard is prepared to hang his hat on.

The six-foot-one, 210-pound Sherwood Park, Alta, native recorded career bests in carries (250), rushing yards (1,195), rushing touchdowns (10) and receptions (43) in 2024 with the Carolina Panthers. And that was despite missing the final two regular-season games with a calf strain.

But even with the security of a US$33.2-million, four-year contract extension, the 25-year-old says he's nowhere near being a finished product.

"I was blessed to have many accomplishments … but I'm a perfectionist," Hubbard said. "I believe in the analogy just keep chopping until the tree falls down.

"I've looked at what I did well, what I need to work on and it's time to get back to work."

Hubbard registered four 100-yard games last season, one more than he had over his first three NFL seasons combined. And in what proved to be his final '24 game, Hubbard ran for 152 yards and two TDs — including the winning 21-yard run in overtime — in a 36-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals to earn NFC offensive player of the week honours.

But Hubbard went on season-ending injured reserve the following week, leaving him just 159 yards short of surpassing Rueben Mayes as the top-rushing Canadian in an NFL regular season.

Mayes, of North Battleford, Sask., ran for a career-high 1,353 yards in 1986 as a rookie with the New Orleans Saints, becoming the first Canadian to crack the 1,000-yard NFL rushing plateau. Hubbard is just the second.

Mayes was pulling for Hubbard to surpass his mark, but Hubbard said it was never on his radar.

"It's not something I keep in the back of my mind or that I'm chasing," he said. "To be in those talks and conversations is definitely a blessing.

"I look at myself as a leader in terms of sports and athletics in Canada … as an example to show kids from where I came from that they can do the same thing. I definitely hold that in very high regard."

Hubbard's tenure in Carolina has been a roller-coaster.

Taken in the fourth round, No. 127 overall, in the '21 draft, Hubbard joined a franchise that already had an elite rusher in Christian McCaffrey. But Hubbard ran for a team-high 612 yards that year as injuries limited McCaffrey to just seven games.

Carolina dealt McCaffrey to San Francisco in 2022 but Hubbard registered career lows in carries (95), yards (466) and TDs (two) that year. Before the '23 season, the Panthers added Miles Sanderson as a free agent. Hubbard rushed for 902 yards and five touchdowns that year but averaged 3.8 yards per carry.

Last year, Carolina drafted Texas's Jonathon Brooks in the second round even though Brooks suffered a knee injury in 2023. Brooks wasn't ready to start of the season, presenting Hubbard an opportunity to prove he was the starter.

Carolina rewarded Hubbard with an extension that reportedly included US$15 million guaranteed and a maximum value of $37.2 million. But the contract hasn't put added pressure on Hubbard.

"I probably feel the opposite," he said. "I kind of feel a weight has been lifted off me in terms of trying to take care of my family and having that in the back of my mind.

"I play football because I love it, I'm a competitor and I love competing so the higher the stakes or the odds — however you want to look at it — the more I'm into it. I wouldn't say that's pressure but even if it was, I love it."

Hubbard's game has changed significantly since arriving in the NFL. Some alteration has come through personal reflection and self-analysis, but the harsh realities that come with playing a physical game have forced others.

"My body has changed," Hubbard said. "I've had knee surgeries and some pretty intense groin surgeries that have kind of altered the way I run and my speed, stuff like that.

"I've just had to take kind of a different approach in the way I ran the ball, the way I moved and what my body needed from me to be at my best. Surgeries take a long time to recover from, much longer than people think on average, myself included."

Carolina was 5-12 under first-year head coach Dave Canales after a 2-15 finish in '23. The Panthers' best finish since Hubbard's arrival was 7-10 in 2022 but Hubbard is optimistic better times are ahead for the franchise and himself.

"I think a big thing this year was the team overall moving in the right direction," Hubbard said. "Every NFL player, everybody in my position would have similar (goals) but just to win games, make the playoffs and win a championship.

"I feel like all of the other type of individual goals and things like that kind of come when you're chasing those things."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.