Darrell Henderson could be surprise Offensive Rookie of Year candidate

With all of the uncertainty surrounding Todd Gurley at this point in June, the Los Angeles Rams could end up relying on Darrell Henderson even more during his first NFL season.

Since running back wasn’t as big of a need as other positions, some Los Angeles Rams were surprised to see the team use a third-round pick in the draft on Darrell Henderson, especially after extending Todd Gurley last summer.

However, as Rams fans are now aware, the concerns surrounding Gurley’s knee continue to pile up by the day, and while plenty could still happen from now until the start of training camp, it’s not looking good at the moment for the star running back.

Despite Los Angeles making the claim late in the postseason that Gurley’s knee was fine, and Sean McVay just didn’t do a good job of using him on offense, it didn’t take fans long to realize this was far from true.

To top the frustration off, it was later revealed after the Super Bowl that Gurley was actually dealing with arthritis in the same knee he suffered a torn ACL on back in college, leaving fans wondering if the Rams organization misled them leading up to the Super Bowl.

Even if this was the case, unfortunately there isn’t anything Los Angeles can do now to take back their previous approach, and the best option is to focus on the upcoming 2019 season.

As for Gurley’s status at the moment, well with reports recently emerging that he may no longer be able to take on the approach of an every-down back on offense, the Rams find themselves in a tough position in the weeks leading up to training camp.

Then again, at least Los Angeles is in better position at running back with Henderson when looking at where this team was a few months back, right?

In what shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, the Rams claimed that selecting Henderson had nothing to with concerns surrounding Gurley, but more do the impressive different running style by the Memphis product.

Numerous teams across the NFL use multiple running backs to make the offense that much more dangerous, and after watching Henderson finish his final year with the Tigers in 2018 with 1,909 rushing yards to go along with 22 touchdowns, why wouldn’t Los Angeles want this?

Henderson may have been considered a backup option before that would only see the field when Gurley needed a break, but it looks like the circumstances could change once training camp gets underway, depending on how things look with Gurley’s knee.

If the knee is still an issue for Gurley by then, Los Angeles won’t have any other choice but to make Henderson the top running back on offense, even if Malcolm Brown has the edge experience wise.

Making a prediction of a third-round pick like Henderson to emerge as a surprise Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate sounds crazy to even consider, but if the Rams are forced to give the youngster a heavy workload in 2019, it’s certainly possible.