Stew's Take: A Comparison for New Panthers RB Jonathon Brooks

Jonathan Stewart explains what he sees on tape with the incoming Panthers' rookie back.

Over the past couple of years, I've had the pleasure of co-hosting the Bleav in Panthers podcast with Desmond Johnson and legendary Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart. If you haven't checked us out yet, what are you doing? All joking aside, come stop by and chat with us each week during our open mailbag portion of the show. It's a lot of fun.

Each week after we record, I'll put together a quick write up here on the site highlighting a topic from the show, calling it "Stew's Take.'

Last week, the Carolina Panthers took a lot of folks by surprise by selecting Texas running back Jonathon Brooks in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He is widely regarded as the top running back in the class despite only having one year of high level production, thanks to sitting behind Bijan Robinson. His season was cut a little short due to a torn ACL, but he is expected to be ready to go for training camp later this summer.

This past season, Brooks rushed for 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns on 187 carries. After watching some film on the newest Panther, J-Stew loves what he sees and found a couple of comparisons for him.

“The way this guy Jonathon Brooks comes off tape, he reminds me of a mixture of Raheem Mostert and Jamaal Charles. He can make guys miss and that’s special. Not everybody has that wiggle, not everybody has that spark and you see it on tape.

“He also reminds me of somebody similar with his draft situation, which is myself. Coming into 2008 I got drafted and I was coming off of a surgery that I had that was performed by Dr. (Robert) Anderson, who was on the Panthers staff at the time. It was one of those things where I was getting drafted to a place, first round draft pick, people questioning me and questioning whether or not they should have drafted a running back and all those types of things. Long story short, it works out because you committed to the culture and you committed to what you were trying to establish which was a hard-nosed, smart football team that ran the ball. And you already had DeAngelo Williams, and so, the pressures of me as running back coming in as a rookie that’s hurt, I didn’t really feel too much pressure. So the situation here you have (Miles) Sanders, you have Chuba Hubbard so you have a solid foundation for a young guy to come in and not be rushed to go out there and be immediate. The value we got out of that, I mean… I didn’t really think he was going to be there to be honest.”