Either Dave Canales Lied or Jonathon Brooks is Officially a Bust

After a frustratingly slow and poorly-communicated process of figuring out when Jonathon Brooks would finally make his debut, Carolina Panthers fans were fired up in Week 12. Their second-round pick was finally going to see the field, completing what promised to be an incredible one-two punch in the backfield with Chuba Hubbard.

Head coach Dave Canales finally gave a clear answer that Brooks was going to play, and even brought the exciting news that Brooks would not be on a "pitch count." The delayed debut was because Canales was only ready to let Brooks play if he was confident that the rookie could handle a full workload. So everything was set up for Panthers fans to get to see what Brooks was made of.

Then Sunday rolled around.

What did a fully-healthy, ready-to-go, no-pitch-count role look like for Carolina's second-round pick? How about 2 carries for 7 yards? How about only even on the field for five snaps — only three more than Raheem Blackshear?

So that leaves us with two possibilities. Either Brooks was a total bust and waste of a draft pick, or there were some limitations.

And when I say "bust" I'm not even necessarily talking about him as a player. How could we even know how good he is in five snaps? But if you're a rebuilding team spending a second-round pick on a running back (already a questionable decision at best) and his "no pitch count" workload is playing five snaps, your pick was a bust – and a pretty inexcusable one at that.

The other, and hopefully more accurate, scenario is that Canales was not being honest with his evaluation. Considering how strange the lead-up to Brooks' debut was (spending weeks practicing in full but still only being "hopeful" to play until a few days before the game), and how Canales has tried to mislead opponents by withholding starting QB news, perhaps he wasn't being honest with his interview response. Maybe Brooks was purposely only seeing limited action as a way to ease him into his first NFL action.

The only other explanation that really lands at all would be if Chuba Hubbard was just playing too well to take off the field. Even still that's not a great sign for the pick itself (do you really want to spend a second-rounder on a guy who is only needed in some games?), and it really was not the case yesterday. Hubbard ran for 58 yards on 16 carries and added only 2 yards on 5 targets in the passing game. That's a whopping 60 yards on 21 opportunities — a bottom-three game on the season by his standards. And Carolina really couldn't afford to take him off the field for Brooks?

It's a strange spot. Panthers fans have to be feeling pretty good about taking the Kansas City Chiefs to the wire, but this backfield situation is a total head-scratcher, and Canales is quickly earning a reputation for being a coach whose public comments don't hold any water.

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