Los Angeles Rams: As expected, Todd Gurley is the MVP front-runner

The Los Angeles Rams seemed like they had the MVP in Jared Goff after four weeks. Now, that focus has shifted over to running back Todd Gurley.

All signs were pointing to Todd Gurley winning the NFL Most Valuable Player of the Year award before the 2018-2019 season began. Now, after six weeks, Gurley is practically the front-runner for the award over some notable quarterbacks, including his Los Angeles Rams teammate.

We wrote a season preview article discussing why Gurley could win the award this season. To sum it up, the NFL was due for a running back to win the award.

If you go back to the start of the 21st century, running backs typically win the award every six years. The only exception was when Shaun Alexander and LaDainian Tomlinson won the award back-to-back in 2005 and 2006.

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The last running back to win the award was Adrian Peterson, who was the NFL MVP in 2012. Six years ago.

Plus, it did not seem like there was a quarterback that was primed to win the award. Tom Brady is only getting older and Carson Wentz and Aaron Rodgers were both coming off an injury.

Of course, we did not expect this emergence from Patrick Mahomes, who was actually the betting favorite to win the award before Sunday’s games, per OddsShark.

Heck, after four weeks of action Jared Goff was easily the second-best candidate to win the award. Not only has Gurley leapfrogged Goff, but he also leapfrogged Mahomes as well.

Gurley had a monster showing in Week 6 against the Denver Broncos, which probably should have been expected with the weather. Gurley carried the ball 28 times for 208 yards and two rushing touchdowns — sprinkled in were two catches for 17 yards.

This performance puts Gurley at 623 rushing yards, 237 receiving yards, nine rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns. Gurley now leads the NFL in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage. At this rate, Gurley will finish with somewhere around 2,300 yards from scrimmage.

The 2,300 yards from scrimmage mark has only been hit 10 times in the history of the NFL. If Gurley can stretch it out to 2,400 yards from scrimmage it would give him the third-highest single season mark behind Chris Johnson and Marshall Faulk.

Mahomes did play a good game on Sunday night against the Patriots and definitely is still in the discussion. However, right now, Gurley is 1A and Mahomes is 1B.

As the Los Angeles Rams continue to stretch this unbeaten streak out and get into the really challenging games, Todd Gurley will only get better. I might as well go put some money on Gurley winning the award right now.