8 Preseason Waiver Wire Players Who Can Help Win Your Fantasy Football League

Cameron Artis-Payne, Carolina Panthers

ESPN Ownership: 9.5%
ADP: 142 (12.06)

Close your eyes and picture this: It's the fourth round of your draft, you need to take your second running back and you call out the name of the top player left on your board, Carolina Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart.

Your brain tells you "great value pick" but your gut tells you something else.

You know that uneasy feeling in your stomach you just got? That's exactly why you should keep close tabs on his backup Cameron Artis-Payne this season.

That gut feeling that Stewart is going to get dinged up and miss at least a few games this season will happen whenever you're dealing with someone who last played a full 16 game season in 2011, and has played in just 28 out of a possible 48 games in the past three years.

So what exactly can we expect out of the Panthers rookie tailback if he's given a chance to fill in for Stewart?

A patient north-south style runner with the strength and explosiveness to shed tacklers, Artis-Payne's running style melds well with the Panthers offensive line that ranked in the top half of the league in run blocking last season according to Pro Football Focus.

And he's already shown glimpses of this in the preseason, winning the backup role to Stewart thanks to a strong camp and his 72 yards on the ground on 18 carries through three preseason games so far.

While the starting tailback job in Carolina may not be as lucrative as the same position on other teams -- as our Editor-In-Chief JJ Zachariason has noted, no tailback for the Panthers has tallied more than seven touchdowns in a single season and last year the entire running backs unit combined for a -0.14 Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) per attempt -- if Artis-Payne finds himself in a starting role for this team, the opportunity itself will likely net you a solid RB2, as Stewart finished the year as last season.