Nineteen touches is a starter's workload. Chuba Hubbard opened the 2025 season with exactly that, and it's the number fantasy managers are penciling in for Week 1 of 2026.
Stop penciling. A summer of Jonathon Brooks makes a repeat unlikely, and "unlikely" is carrying more weight in that sentence than it should.
So here's the call anyway: start Hubbard in Week 1, but as a low-end flex, and treat him as a weekly rental rather than a season-long hold. He still ranks ahead of Brooks. Barely. That adverb is the entire margin.
The case for Hubbard is incumbency. He has the game tape, a 19-touch opener that proves he can absorb a real workload when the ball is live. Brooks has a summer. August is a liar's month in every backfield in the league, and coaches default to the guy who has already done it once the games count. That's not a ringing endorsement of Hubbard. It's a tiebreaker.
The case against is that 19 touches is now the ceiling you're buying, not the floor. Brooks spent the offseason earning work, and work earned in the summer doesn't vanish in September. It shows up as the first series of the second half, then the two-minute drill, then a start. The trajectory is pointed one direction, and it isn't Hubbard's.
That's why this is a flex play and not an RB2. In a deep league where you're choosing between the two backfield mates for one lineup slot, you take Hubbard this week and you don't feel good about it. In a shallow league, you probably have a better option and should use it.
What changes my mind: if Brooks is on the field for the opening drive, I'm out on Hubbard in that lineup, immediately, no waiting for the touch count to settle. If Hubbard instead opens with the first-team offense and gets the goal-line work, I'll move him up a tier and stop calling him a rental.
My verdict: Hubbard starts Week 1 and becomes a Week 3 question mark. Play him in a flex, don't trade for him, and be ready to cut bait the moment the backfield tells you which way it's moving. I'd rather be a week early on Brooks than a month late on Hubbard.
