You have to admire the perseverance, if nothing else. Brooks was a second-round pick in the 2024 draft, and the first running back off the board, despite seeing his college career end at Texas due to a torn ACL in his right knee. Rather than giving him a redshirt season, Carolina saw enough in his rehab to let him make him NFL debut in Week 12 of his rookie season. Two weeks and nine carries later, he re-tore his right ACL, an injury that wound up costing him the entire 2025 campaign. Prior to the initial knee injury, Brooks was drawing Jamaal Charles comparisons due to his elite burst and elusiveness with strong pass-catching skills, but even when healthy he never handled a heavy workload in college, so he's almost completely unproven in a feature role. The Panthers still have Chuba Hubbard around to handle the No. 1 job in the backfield, so if Brooks proves he's healthy and can stay that way, he could be eased into a complementary role. Hubbard lost the starting job to Rico Dowdle in 2025, though, and the door will be open for Brooks to do the same. First, though, he's got to show he can stay on the field and still has the ability to hit for big plays after his multiple knee surgeries.