Todd Gurley finally took the field in an expanded role this past week against the Arizona Cardinals and came through with a massive performance. It was exactly what the St. Louis Rams drafted him to be and there is a lot of excitement surrounding him heading into the Rams’ Week 5 matchup against the Green Bay Packers.
Against the Cardinals last week, Gurley was able to carry the football 19 times for 146 yards. He didn’t score a touchdown, but the performance that he put up was pivotal in their win over the Cardinals. Looking ahead to this week against Green Bay, he is looking to make a big statement and prove that he is a growing star against another run defense that has performed well against some of the NFL’s best running backs.
It was a long process for Gurley to recover from his torn ACL, but he is back and is going to be given a lot of carries against the Packers. He is obviously the workhorse running back moving forward and the Rams likely won’t hold back anymore due to the concern about his knee.
Gurley looked just fine against the Cardinals and was obviously capable of even more work if the Rams had asked him to take more carries.
Green Bay has put up impressive games against Carlos Hyde, Marshawn Lynch and Jamaal Charles, although Charles did have a better game than the other two. Gurley has his work cut out for him trying to figure out how to have big success against the Packers.
Coming into the NFL, there were quite a few NFL scouts that compared him to a mix between Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch. Those comparisons are extremely exciting for the Rams’ fan base, but he will have to be a bit of both this week against the Packers to have a big game. Green Bay is very good at shutting down one-trick running backs, but Gurley has a combination that the Packers haven’t faced yet.
He definitely has a chance to put up big numbers for the Rams and they will likely get him involved early and try to establish the ground game to open things up for quarterback Nick Foles.
Expect to see Gurley come through with a big game for the second week in a row. Simply seeing him back at full strength and playing like a star is good news for the Rams. He will be out to prove himself once again to the rest of the NFL this week, but he has to play his best brand of football in order to play to the level that his team needs him to play.
