The Carolina Panthers entered the season using a three-headed monster at running back, with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart carrying the load and Mike Tolbert a threat to vulture touchdowns. And of course, quarterback Cam Newton was always around as well. And then as injuries ravaged the team, Carolina added several more running backs. On Sunday, it was back to the core guys, but only Stewart had any real impact on the game, which Carolina lost, 31-13, to the Minnesota Vikings.
Fantasy football waiver wire, Week 14: Jonathan Stewart continues to outdo DeAngelo Williams
Ultimately, neither Carolina running back is doing enough to help right now. We break down the fantasy implications.
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Stewart carried the ball 12 times Sunday for 85 yards and added two catches for 25 more. Williams had seven carries for 21 yards, and Tolbert, in his first game off the short-term IR, had two carries for five yards. Newton was actually the team’s second-leading rusher, with nine carries for 49 yards.
Fantasy impact: You don’t really want any of the Carolina running backs in fantasy. Williams hasn’t gone for more than seven fantasy points in a game all season, and that was back in Week 1. Stewart has been better, with two games of 11 points, but still, with so many people running the ball on a bad offense, there just isn’t enough to go around.
This time of season, grabbing a super low-upside guy like Stewart (or Williams) is less helpful than getting high-upside backups to fantasy starters, which makes it even more difficult to roster any of the Carolina runners.
