Jonathan Stewart was only able to rush 5 times in the Panthers' game against the 49ers on Sunday as he suffered a hamstring injury early on in the game. The Panthers were still able to come out with a victory against San Francisco, but they obviously were missing their starting back.

Hamstring injuries are always tough for running backs to come back from and given that Stewart has had injuries in the past, one would think that it wouldn't be a good idea to force him back on the field too soon.

Ron Rivera spoke about Stewart's injury today and wasn't too confident that Stewart would be back on the field next week.

Panthers fans and fantasy owners will be disappointed to hear Stewart's prognosis for the coming weeks, but they should be a little relieved to hear that he shouldn't be out too long.

Fozzy Whittaker filled in nicely in Stewart's absence and should be the starting running back in Carolina going forward.