The Carolina Panthers are going to take it one day at a time with a key piece to their offense ahead of Week 1.
Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season is officially here. With Labor Day wrapping up a long weekend, Monday marks the start for opening week in the NFL as things kick off on Wednesday night followed by a Thursday night game in Australia and then a full slate on Sunday afternoon.
For the Carolina Panthers, they will open at home on Sunday when they host the Chicago Bears. It's a matchup of two teams that won their division in the NFC and are looking to get even better here in 2026.
As Carolina begins the week with a practice, there was another update to the Jonathon Brooks situation as the running back is dealing with an injury.
Last week, Brooks didn't practice as he did work off to the side with a trainer. The Panthers chalked it up to soreness and wouldn't reveal exactly what was going on, saying they are optimistic about his chances to play in Week 1. But on Monday, Brooks sat out practice again but did do some light running off to the side.
Carolina is still optimistic that Brooks will play but Dave Canales says they are going to take it one day at a time.
“We have to just keep taking it one day at a time," Canales said. "He ran out there today, and then we'll evaluate what that looked like. We'll see that and compare it to what he looked like before, and we'll go from there.”
That's not really what you want to hear in terms of an injury just under six days from kickoff for a new season. The Panthers hope that they can have a two-headed backfield using Chuba Hubbard and Jonathon Brooks as much as they can.
But now this injury to Brooks has put a damper on that a bit.
It's also tough seeing him hurt once again as he finally had a full offseason of work in the NFL. He is coming off another ACL injury he suffered at the end of the 2024 season which caused him to miss the 2025 campaign. The first injury report for the Panthers will release on Wednesday.
