BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+Team Leagues
ROSTERED IN: 25% of Leagues
ANALYSIS: In case you have missed the breaking news: the Carolina Panthers just traded their no. 1 rusher (and fourth-best fantasy RB in PPR leagues) Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers for a handful of draft picks. The hole created by this trade in the Panthers' backfield won't be filled by any player coming in exchange from The Bay, so it will be Chuba Hubbard's and D'Onta Foreman's backfield from now on.
Chuba Hubbard, the second-year man out of Oklahoma St., already enjoyed some reasonable playing time last season making up for CMC's injury woes as the Panthers' lead-back only appeared in seven games through the 2021 season. Hubbard finished last year with 612 rushing yards (five touchdowns) on 172 carries while also putting up 174 yards (and one touchdown) catching 25-of-37 targets in Carolina.
On a per-opportunity basis, Hubbard averaged 0.66 PPR points per opportunity compared to McCaffrey 0.91. Hubbard's mark ranked second-last among the 30 rushers that logged 200+ opportunities through the 2021 season.
That doesn't paint a good picture of Hubbard, and neither does his current role in Carolina--at least with CMC healthy through Week 6. Hubbard has played just 19 snaps over the full season compared to McCaffrey's 287 and he's only gotten to rush the ball six times for 34 yards.
Hubbard should get assigned an RB2 role with teammate D'Onta Foreman taking on a heavier dose of opportunities and touches ROS and assuming Carolina doesn't make any other move to strengthen the position. Not having to battle with CMC is a positive, of course, but Hubbard is not going to turn into a bonafide superstar overnight and he still has to prove his worth over Foreman to even get an RB1 role just in Carolina.
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