CHARLOTTE — In the world of content, the only thing better than a good quarterback controversy is one about running backs, I suppose.

But for the Panthers, currently and historically, the question has always been not 'Which one?' but 'Why not both?'

Panthers head coach Dave Canales started the news cycle Monday by saying he wanted to honor Chuba Hubbard's contributions and role here, while not ignoring the fact that Rico Dowdle has been on one lately.

During the two games Hubbard missed with a calf injury, Dowdle averaged 7.33 yards per carry and totaled 389 rushing yards.

Since Hubbard came back and they split things, Dowdle's rushed for 5.7 per carry on 25 attempts to Hubbard's 2.5 yards per carry on 26 attempts.

"It's a fair observation, and you know Chuba has meant a lot to this organization, certainly to the identity that we want to build our team on," Canales said. "And wanted to give Chuba the opportunity to go out there and to continue to impact our team in a positive way.

"We cannot ignore the fact that Rico has been exceptional in a couple of games and then in the opportunities he's had over the last two weeks. He's made some excellent plays, loved the tempo and violence that he's running with, and these are all things that we're talking about and working through this week as we look back on these last four games and really taking a snapshot of what's been successful for us. These are conversations that we do definitely have to have."

That makes it reasonably obvious that they want to give Dowdle more chances to stay hot, but Canales hasn't come out and said it out loud, for the sake of competitive advantage and because it's not really necessary. But he's also made it clear that he wants all the backs, including rookie Trevor Etienne, to be ready come Sunday.

"Just work; just hard work, and that's what we count on," Canales replied Friday when asked what he's seen from his backs this week in practice. "We count on all those guys, Trevor included, when they get in there that we can count on them. Whether it's in the run game, whether it's in pass protection or running routes, you know, just everything you've got every single play, and that's the mentality.

"I love that room. Bernie (Parmalee, the running backs coach) does a great job with those guys, getting them ready, taking care of the ball first and foremost, and running with violence. Everything they do, I ask them to do with violence, and that's what we want to see out of the guys, that's what they showed this week."

What Canales means by that is he wants each back to empty the tank every time he touches it. And that requires having someone else on hand in case one runs out of gas.

It's instructive that in the two weeks Hubbard was out, and Dowdle had a combined 53 carries, he had to leave both games late with cramps.

That's a phenomenon that former Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart is familiar with, because he lived it.

"We talk about juice; eventually juice does run out, right?" Stewart said this week on the Panthers Postgame Show with Kristen Balboni. "And when juice runs out, that's when you have other juice items to put into the midst of the game plan, right?

"And so there's no need to make this anything more than what it is. See, the hot hand is all about what is best for the offensive unit right now, right?"

Few people understand this dynamic quite like Stewart. When the Panthers drafted him 13th overall in 2008, they were two years removed from taking DeAngelo Williams in the first round (27th overall in 2006).

So the year before Stewart walked in, Williams was splitting the load with DeShaun Foster (who split the load with Stephen Davis during the Super Bowl run in 2003), with Foster getting 247 carries for 876 yards (3.5 per carry) while Williams had a complementary 144 carries for 717 yards (5.0 per carry).

"Me and DeAngelo, we were both first rounders, right?" Stewart said. "And so we had the understanding coming into this, I was drafted into a situation knowing DeAngelo Williams was balling, right? So I'm not here to take a spot. I'm here to fulfill a duty. I'm here to complement him and complement this offense because we also drafted (run-blocking right tackle) Jeff Otah, so I knew what time it was. We're going to run the rock, and so I want to be a part of that, right?

"So how me and DeAngelo did it, it wasn't, 'You get this series. I get this series.' It was, hey, you go out there and do what you've got to do. I'm here on the sideline. If you need me to come in there after you break a long run, I'm coming in. If it's tough sledding in there and you need somebody to come in and help you out, I'm coming in because it's just a change of pace, right? It's just the opportunity when things aren't going well, to change the pace. When things aren't going well with your guy, boom, hit it running, and then we can all eat."

The carries varied week-to-week with Williams and Stewart. By Week 4 of Stewart's rookie year, they reached a 15-15 split on rushing attempts within the same game, but in Weeks 8 and 10, it was 17-8 and 19-7 for Williams. The important part is that all three were wins.

The high point of the pairing that year was a Week 14 game at home against the Buccaneers, when Williams had 19 carries for 186 yards and two touchdowns, and Stewart came in with 15 carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns. As you might imagine, that was also a win.

Stewart compared it to the 2022 game in which the Panthers ran for a franchise-record 320 yards against the Lions on a sub-freezing day at Bank of America Stadium. D'Onta Foreman had 21 carries for 165 yards and a touchdown, and Hubbard had 12 carries for 125 yards.

"I mean, I look back to the Tampa Bay game from my rookie year, that was the definition of we're all going to eat, and I look back to a couple of years ago, right, where Chuba and D'Onta Foreman. They played the Detroit Lions. The game plan was it's cold outside and we're all going to eat, man, grown man football. The offensive linemen, guess what they love to do? They like to eat too, so I think, give them an opportunity to take that type of form and find that type of flow because that will benefit the team mostly, especially against teams that are contenders.

"You want to be able to slow them down as much as possible, and you do that the best when you have a run game, especially with a high-power offense that's putting up big numbers that you know they have the capability of running the score up if you allow that. How do you take the ball out of their hands? That's with a successful running game."

And when he was with Williams, it was never a matter of which one was getting the work, not with a couple of backs who had near-equal carries and over 1,100 yards in 2009.

So when you're talking about Hubbard and Dowdle now, it's a couple of backs with 1,000-yard resumes (Hubbard had 1,195 here last year, while Dowdle had 1,079 for Dallas).

For Stewart, that's a combination that will work well in tandem, just as he and Williams did.

"You get your running game established, you get it established early and you make a commitment to it and you commit to it," Stewart said. "because what that does not only does it instill the confidence in your offensive line and your running backs, but it also keeps your defense fresh and I don't think that people understand the value of having a fresh defense in the fourth quarter of a football game, how much of a difference that can be in the in the win-loss total, because at the end of the day when your defense can finish games, that's where games in the NFL are usually won at in the fourth quarter.

"We used to compete and say to ourselves, let us be the guys that finish the game."

Stewart just said Dave Canales' magic word, and what he's trying to create with a well-stocked backfield.