Everybody seems to love rookies and going young in their fantasy drafts now-a-days. However, there is one rookie running back that is being overlooked far too often this season. Carolina Panthers fifth-round pick Cameron Artis-Payne has massive potential this season, and opportunity will arise for him. He’s a deep sleeper you’ll want to own this season.

Artis-Payne is a bruiser that can handle a full workload much like he did at Auburn. Last season he carried the ball over 300 times for 1,608 yards and 13 TDs. He’s a north and south runner that has great patience and exceptional acceleration. While he will primarily be slammed between the tackles, he has the burst and deceptive speed to hit the corner. He is also reliable and protects the ball very well while running.

The reason he will see an opportunity this season is the Panthers subpar RB corps. He’s a lock to jump Fozzy Whittaker and Darrin Reaves who have proven to be less than stellar options. That leaves Jonathan Stewart to contend with. The bottom line is Stewart just isn’t reliable. Over the past three seasons he’s missed 20 games and has been less than impressive since 2009, which also happens to be his only 1,000 yard season. After rushing for 10 touchdowns in each of his first-two seasons, he has totaled only 10 TDs over the past five seasons. Stewart also doesn’t add much to the passing attack catching only 130 passes in his seven-year career. Now that DeAngelo Williams is gone, it’s time for a fresh face in Carolina and that fresh face is Artis-Payne. If he doesn’t win the job outright, he’ll have it when Stewart inevitably goes down with an injury. He has only played in 16 games once (2011) in the past five years.

Do not overlook this young back in your draft. His ADP is currently 174.73 making his the 53rd running back off the board. His value is tremendous this late. Don’t be shocked if he is this year’s Jeremy Hill, an under-the-radar pick with an assumed RB1 in front of him that he surpasses and thrives when given an opportunity due to an injury that everyone could see coming. The only difference is Giovani Bernard is far superior to Stewart and Stewart is even more likely to get injured.

Do yourself a favor and at the very least keep this kid on your radar. If you do not, you may very well live to regret it. Snag him as a late-round flier and stash him on your bench. You can never have too many running backs, especially young backs with major upside. If you make the unfortunate mistake of drafting Stewart at his criminally-high ADP, make sure to handcuff him with Artis-Payne. Nonetheless, you are probably much better off just skipping Stewart altogether and just taking Artis-Payne. Why not cut out the middle man? All he’ll do is get in your way.