Los Angeles Rams: Todd Gurley is still worth a first-round pick
By Jason Reed
With the start of the NFL season is the start of the fantasy football season and no player has more question marks than Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley.
The Los Angeles Rams have the most talented running back in the league in Todd Gurley, at least that is the moniker that Gurley earned last season with yet another great year and Le’Veon Bell out of action.
A phenomenal regular season turned sour as Gurley battled with his knee health down the stretch, prompting the Rams to bring in C.J. Anderson, who reignited his career with some great performances down the stretch.
Gurley was not a big component of the Rams offense in the playoffs and that is probably why the team only scored three points in Super Bowl LIII. Aside from Bill Belichick’s great game planning, the best play-action team in football was mostly without their coveted back.
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That has bled into this season as Gurley’s knee is still a huge question mark, a question mark that we won’t start to get an answer to until the first week of the regular season. The concerns are not made any better by the fact that the Rams drafted Darrell Henderson in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft when there were already two other backs on the roster.
Ram fans are obviously concerned about this but the ones that are likely racking their heads together more are the fantasy football players. Last year, Gurley was a no-brainer top-two pick. Now, nobody knows where Gurley should go.
Some fantasy sites project him to be a late first-round pick but it would not be all that surprising to see him slip because of the worries by fantasy owners.
At the end of the day, though, Gurley would be an absolute steal at the end of the first round and is definitely worth picking if he is available when you pick late in round one.
First and foremost, the running back position is kind of a mess this year. Melvin Gordon and Ezekiel Elliott are in contract disputes and nobody knows what to expect out of last year’s top two, Gurley and Bell.
Out of all these guys, Gurley actually presents the most stability. He is the one that put up MVP-like numbers last year and does not have a contract to worry about and did not miss an entire season of work.
He is just scratching the surface of his prime and should be in for at least three more elite seasons. Yes, the knee is a worry as a reoccurring trend, but he has had seven months to fully rest that knee and just because the Rams are staying quiet does not mean he is hurt.
Heck, Gurley is running the fastest he ever has in training camp right now. If that isn’t a sign of good knee health, I don’t know what is. Contact and tackles do change things, but that is an extremely positive sign.
Next. Who will be the number one receiver?. dark
Will the Los Angeles Rams use him less frequently to keep him healthy? Probably. But he is still going to get plenty of looks in the running and passing game and is always one big run away from a huge fantasy game.