Carolina Panthers: Running Back Injuries Become the Story
The Carolina Panthers saw Jonathan Stewart get hurt yesterday, but that was not the only running back injury on their radar.
The Carolina Panthers were the recipient of bad running back news on Sunday, but the team also saw some other injuries in other games affect their early schedule. The obvious running back injury yesterday was the one to starting running back Jonathan Stewart. A hamstring injury took Stewart out of the Panthers win over the 49ers.
The near term didn’t look that problematic. Fozzy Whittaker came off the bench to run for a hundred yards. Mike Tolbert saw some carries. Cam Newton’s running influence unfortunately included a key fumble in the fourth quarter of the game that nearly let the 49ers back in it.
While Whittaker had a productive day, a key factor for short-term help was inactive. That would have been Cameron Artis-Payne. As the Panthers showed last year, Artis-Payne will see a good balance of carries in any game that Stewart misses. Artis-Payne had a good preseason. Between him, Whittaker, Tolbert, and Newton, the Panthers should survive the absence of Stewart in the near term.
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The running back position also will affect the Panthers season further down the line. While Stewart’s status is unknown, other teams lost their primary rushers as well. Thomas Rawls of the Seahawks was hurt but likely will come back this week. The Seahawks are on the docket much later this year.
More currently, Buccaneers running back Doug Martin suffered a hamstring injury. Tampa is about three weeks away and there is a chance Martin could miss it. The bowling ball from Boise was key to the Tampa Bay plan under former coach Lovie Smith, and Martin was good week one for Tampa.
However the biggest running back problem has to be the one in Minnesota. The Vikings had already lost their starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater for the season. They did win their first two games behind Shaun Hill and Sam Bradford. However their win against the Packers came at high cost.
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Adrian Peterson had to leave the game and could not walk to do it. He will be out at least one week and that game he misses will be the one against the Panthers. That puts the Panthers in a clear position of needing to beat the Vikings. They cannot turn down an opportunity like this, even though they would have been favored at home anyway.
So it looks like running back issues will dominate the next couple of games. If I was Devonta Freeman of the Falcons, then I would be concerned.