Panthers RB Brooks again tears ACL in right knee

Carolina Panthers rookie running back Jonathon Brooks tore the ACL in his right knee — for the second time in 13 months — in Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, coach Dave Canales announced Monday.

Brooks suffered the injury on a noncontact play in the first quarter at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

Brooks tore the ACL on Nov. 11, 2023, in a 29-26 Longhorns victory over TCU. The Panthers, who fell to 3-10 with their third straight close loss Sunday, still felt good enough about Brooks to select him in the second round of the 2024 draft.

Brooks spent all of the preseason and the first nine games rehabbing the injury before making his NFL debut three games ago in a 30-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He had two carries for 7 yards in that game and six for 18 the following week in an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while playing behind Chuba Hubbard.

He injured the knee against Philadelphia on his only carry that resulted in a loss of 3 yards.

Canales said Brooks will have surgery to repair his injury “at some point,” but he was unsure if it would be this month.

“My heart is with him,” Canales added. “I mean, just the amount of hard work that he put in to get back to this place, to get him to play. He’s heartbroken. I’m heartbroken. The whole group just feeling for him.

“We’ll be there every step of the way with him, supporting him with this, through this journey. He knows how to do this. He’ll be able to attack it, and his focus is just going to shift in terms of what he’s competing for.”

Asked if 2026 was a realistic goal for Brooks to be ready for a full return, Canales said, “I really don’t know. They’ve got to get in there and look at all of it. I’m sure we’ll have more information coming out after the surgery and all that.”

Canales said the team will look at bringing in another running back. Chuba Hubbard was the only healthy back on the roster after Sunday’s game.

Raheem Blackshear was taken to a Philadelphia hospital with a chest injury. He’s listed as day-to-day heading into Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Mike Boone would be next up from the practice squad.

ESPN’s David Newton contributed to this report.