One year later, Rams’ Todd Gurley becomes savior in fantasy football playoffs

After being labeled a bust in fantasy football last season, Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley became a savior for fantasy football owners battling in the playoffs this year.

Prior to the start of the 2016 season, there was plenty of hype surrounding Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley from a fantasy football perspective after the former Georgia standout ran away with Offensive Rookie of the Year honors the year before. In fact, Gurley himself even made a strong case back in the preseason how fantasy football owners would be wise to use their first overall pick on the Rams running back, which obviously would end up backfiring.

Unfortunately, all of those fantasy football owners who spent a high pick on Gurley would end up regretting that decision after Los Angeles went on to have one of the worst offenses in the NFL during the 2016 season, as the team ended up averaging just 14 points per game. And if that wasn’t frustrating enough, Gurley received a ton of unfair criticism for failing to record a single 100-yard rushing game since it wasn’t entirely his fault since the Rams had an awful offensive line along with the fact they were trailing in most games, meaning the offense abandoned the run most of the time.

This season, the results have been much different for Gurley and the rest of this Rams’ offense now that the unit is considered one of the most dangerous in the league with the team averaging 31.3 points per game heading into the final two weeks. Not to mention, the fantasy football owners who were willing to take the risk on Gurley again despite all of the struggles from a year ago most likely ended up winning their playoff contests in Week 15 when looking at the dominant performance displayed by the running back on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

Taking advantage of a banged-up defense, Gurley was basically impossible for the Seahawks to contain after the Rams star finished with 180 yards from the line of scrimmage to go along with four touchdowns. From a fantasy football perspective, most owners would be lucky to see those kind of numbers from two running backs combined, so seeing these results from Gurley turned out to be one of the biggest surprises from Week 15.

Next: NFL Power Rankings Week 16: Rams crush Seahawks

In fact, Gurley’s recent four-touchdown performance against Seattle to bring his total to 17 on the season has experts discussing how he deserves to see his name enter the MVP race once again. After all of the struggles this team went through a year ago, who would have thought someone like Gurley would not only have the Rams on the verge of the NFC West title, but also be part of the MVP discussion? One year after receiving the unfair label of being a fantasy football bust, Gurley has been a savior for owners who were smart enough to take a risk on the third-year running back when looking at his insane numbers from the 2017 season through 14 games.