Panthers have obvious $33.2 million trade candidate

The Carolina Panthers have a lot of depth at the running back position.

If they wanted, that could lead to a logical trade before the NFL's Nov. 4 deadline.

That's the idea posed by ESPN's Panthers beat writer, David Newton.

He suggests that Chuba Hubbard would make sense to send away. He does also acknowledge that it's not something at the top of the Panthers' agenda, though.

"There's really no interest in trading Hubbard, and the Panthers aren't expected to be aggressive," Newton writes. "But with the emergence of Rico Dowdle, confidence in rookie Trevor Etienne and the return of Jonathon Brooks next season, you could make a case for listening to trade offers for Hubbard and his four-year, $33.2 million contract."

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Dowdle is the whole key to this situation.

The Panthers signed him in the offseason to be the backup to Hubbard, their expected workhorse.

But when Hubbard went down with injury, Dowdle shone. He went past 200 yards from scrimmage in both weeks that Hubbard didn't play.

In the two weeks with Hubbard back so far, the pair has pretty much split work. But they haven't split production: Dowdle has been a heck of a lot better.

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Hubbard has enough of a track record that another team could be interested in him. It's really the contract that could make things tough.

Teams don't love paying RBs big bucks. To get one midseason from another team that's expensive might be too much of a burden to take on.

But there are always teams looking for running backs, especially the Kansas City Chiefs right now. Maybe there's a match to be made.

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