Fantasy Football 2017: Is Todd Gurley of the Rams worth the risk in first round?

After a disappointing year in 2016, should fantasy football owners give Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley another chance in the first round?

Around this time last year, Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley was encouraging fantasy football owners to go with him as the No. 1 pick in leagues after taking home Rookie of the Year honors the year before by rushing for 1,106 yards to go along with 10 touchdowns. Unfortunately, Gurley failed to live up to the hype after finishing his sophomore campaign with just 885 rushing yards and six touchdowns.

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What was even more disappointing for the Rams running back is Gurley went the entire year without recording a single 100-yard rushing game, which no fantasy owner could have imagined in a million years. Clearly, those same fantasy owners who used a first-round pick on Gurley last year will be more cautious this time around. But when looking at all of the key changes made by Los Angeles during the offseason along with his impressive play in preseason, would it be wise for fantasy owners to consider Gurley in the first round again this year, and give the running back another chance?

Yes, it can be tough to trust a big-name player after all of the frustration from last season, but between the improvement on the offensive line thanks to the addition of Andrew Whitworth along with Jared Goff feeling more comfortable on offense, Gurley is in a completely different situation. In fact, when compared to last season, the argument can be made that Gurley won’t be feeling as much pressure of being the only weapon on offense for Los Angeles since the team also boosted the receiving corps with big names like Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp.

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While there’s no doubt that Gurley will most likely be off the board by the second or third round in most leagues since he still has the potential to be a top running back from a fantasy football standpoint, it will be interesting to see how high some owners are going to be willing to take him. History tends to repeat itself from time to time, but for Gurley’s sake, here’s to hoping what went down last season was just a one time thing, and the running back can return to his dominant rookie form from 2015 to make him a popular selection in fantasy football.