Jonathon
Brooks.
Jonathon
Brooks.
Texas· 6'0"· 216 lb
"The first running back off the board in 2024 on the strength of eleven brilliant games and a knee everyone knew about, which then tore again in his third NFL appearance."Pre-draft read
Zone-scheme feature back who ran with the patience of a veteran in his only year as a starter. Texas gave him single-back and pistol carries in a wide-zone system, and the trait is his tempo: he presses the front side, waits for the cut lane to declare, then plants and gets vertical in one step without gathering.
The second trait is his hands. He caught 25 balls in eleven games as a legitimate route runner out of the backfield, not just a checkdown outlet. In the run game he creates most of his explosives on the cutback and the perimeter stretch rather than between the tackles. The signature is vision plus one hard cut — he does not dance, and the moment he decides, he is already at full speed.
Outside and mid-zone rushing attack with play-action off it, where a back's job is to press, cut once and use the backside lane.
Year 1: 12-15 touch zone starter with third-down passing work. Ceiling: 1,200-yard feature back who catches 50 balls.
A gap/duo power run game that asks him to hammer a double-team crease and carry short-yardage and goal-line volume.
Everything about him is built on tempo and one hard cut, not on breaking a linebacker's tackle at the line.
Jonathon Brooks | Texas Longhorns RB | 2023 Season Highlights
His only year as a starter: the press-and-cut tempo, the cutback explosives and the receiving usage.
Jonathon Brooks (Texas RB) vs Alabama 2023
Full-game cut against a top-three opponent, useful for judging his vision against a disciplined front.
Jonathon Brooks Highlights | Welcome to the Panthers
Draft-night reel assembled after Carolina moved up for him at pick 46.
Brooks was the first running back off the board in 2024 and the least proven one. He is a 6-0, 216-pound one-cut zone runner who spent two years behind Bijan Robinson before taking over the Texas backfield, and his whole evaluation rested on eleven games of starter tape.
Those eleven games were outstanding. He rushed 187 times for 1,139 yards at 6.1 per carry with ten touchdowns and added 25 catches for 286 yards, becoming a Doak Walker semifinalist and second-team All-Big 12 before an ACL tear ended his season in the tenth game. Career-wise the sample is 23 games and 238 carries — remarkably light usage for a first-round-caliber back, which cut both ways: fresh tread, but almost no evidence against elite defenses over a full year.
Boards were split on the injury more than the player. Evaluators who trusted the tape had him as the RB1 of the class and a fringe first-rounder; those who wanted a medical clean sheet slid him to Day 3. Carolina, needing a lead back and comfortable redshirting him early, moved up in the second round and took the recovery timeline as the price of admission.
- 01
Zone vision
Presses the front-side gap and reads the second-level fit before cutting, letting the blocking scheme develop exactly the way it was drawn.
- 02
One-cut decisiveness
Plants and goes vertical in a single step with no wasted footwork, turning marginal creases into four-yard gains and clean lanes into explosives.
- 03
Receiving value
Caught 25 passes for 286 yards as a starter, running real routes out of the backfield rather than serving as a checkdown safety valve.
- 04
Contact balance
Absorbs glancing hits from defensive backs and stays upright through arm tackles, consistently finishing runs past the point of first contact.
- 05
Fresh usage profile
Just 238 college carries across three seasons behind Bijan Robinson, an unusually light workload for a back with lead-role production.
- 01
Injury history
Tore his right ACL in the tenth game of his only starting season, putting the front half of his rookie year in doubt before he ever practiced.
- 02
Sample size
One year of starter tape and 23 career games leaves real projection risk about how he holds up over a full 300-touch professional workload.
- 03
Short-yardage power
Lacks the hip drive and pad level to consistently move a stacked front, so goal-line and third-and-one work likely goes to someone else.
- 04
Pass protection
Willing but inconsistent as a blocker, missing pickups on delayed pressure and losing leverage when a linebacker attacks his inside shoulder.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Texas | 5 | 21 | 143 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 2022 | Texas | 7 | 30 | 197 | 5 | 2 | 37 |
| 2023 | Texas | 11 | 187 | 1139 | 10 | 25 | 286 |
| Career | — | 23 | 238 | 1479 | 16 | 28 | 335 |
Sports-Reference CFB totals including bowl games; season sums reconcile exactly with the career line (238 carries, 1,479 yards, 16 rushing TD, 28 receptions). Two receiving touchdowns across 2022-2023. The 2023 season ended after ten games with a torn right ACL.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive committee starter whose value comes as much from routes as from between-the-tackles volume.
The realistic best case: a zone back with home-run cutback ability and full-time receiving value.
A back whose body never lets the tape show up, stuck as a rotational piece behind healthier options.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The medical bet has not paid off yet. Brooks spent the first eleven weeks of 2024 rehabbing his college ACL tear, debuted in Week 12, and in his third game — Week 14 — tore the same right ACL again. That ended his rookie year at three appearances, nine carries for 22 yards and a handful of catches. Carolina placed him on the physically unable to perform list in May 2025 and he missed the entire second season without playing a snap. Entering 2026 he was fully cleared for the offseason program, still just 22 years old, with nine career carries and a backfield that has moved on around him: Chuba Hubbard as the lead, Trevor Etienne added in the 2025 draft and veteran depth behind them.
In hindsight the pick was a reasonable process with a brutal outcome. The tape justified an RB1 grade, and the injury was known and priced in — what nobody priced in was a second tear in the same knee thirteen months later. Two ACL surgeries before a player's 22nd birthday change the projection permanently. The player may still be good; the pick, two years in, has produced 22 rushing yards.
Data note: Sports-Reference CFB totals including bowl games; season sums reconcile exactly with the career line (238 carries, 1,479 yards, 16 rushing TD, 28 receptions). Two receiving touchdowns across 2022-2023. The 2023 season ended after ten games with a torn right ACL.