• Carolina came into the weekend with an obvious need at running back, one of the deepest positions in the draft. The Panthers waited until their final pick – their second comp selection in the fifth round – before grabbing a back. And Auburn’s Cameron Artis-Payne wasn’t happy that 14 other backs went ahead of him. “I’m out to prove I’m better than more than a handful of them,” he said on a conference call with local media. “Whether I was a first-round draft pick or the 15th overall running back, I was going to come in with a hunger and a chip on my shoulder. But definitely, because I’m the 15th running back off the board, I’m out to prove a lot of people wrong.”

• A 5-foot-11, 210-pound “bowling ball,” Artis-Payne isn’t a game-breaker, but he should provide good competition for the No. 2 running back role.

• Artis-Payne racked up 13 touchdowns and 1,608 yards last year. Bo Jackson and Tre Mason were the only Tigers who rushed for more yards in a season single.

• The 24-year-old’s path to the NFL was unlike most.

2007: Stuck behind current Bills running back LeSean McCoy in high school in Pennsylvania, Artis-Payne transferred to Harrisburg High School. He rushed for 1,953 yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior, but his grades kept colleges away.

2008: Spent a season at Milford Academy, a prep school in New York.

2009-10: Was out of football.

2011-12: Reemerged at Allan Hancock Community College in California where he rushed for 3,412 yards and 43 touchdowns in just two years.

2013-14: Totaled 2,218 yards and 19 touchdowns in two seasons at Auburn.

• When he arrived at Auburn, fans there were hesitant to call him Cam. That name remained reserved for Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, who brought the Tigers a national title in 2011. Artis-Payne says many people just call him Cap, which you get by putting together his initials. Of course, Newton will likely give his fellow Tiger some sort of nickname as soon as he gets to Charlotte.

• Artis-Payne has a ’44’ tattoo on his back, but he said he doesn’t want to continue wearing that number in Carolina. Instead, he hopes to get 34. That will be a strange sight if that happens so soon after the DeAngelo Williams days.