With only one week left in the NFL regular season, it’s time to look at which players deserve to be in the MVP race.
Names such as Tom Brady, Carson Wentz, and Drew Brees all deserve love. Wentz might be out of the race due to his injury, but Brady and Brees have enough merits to get enough votes. However, they are not front-runners for the Award anymore. That privilege should belong to Todd Gurley, who has been torching defenses left and right over the past few weeks.
The 23-year-old running back has been carrying Los Angeles Rams’ offense this year, and that says a lot considering the kind of year Jared Goff has had. Gurley has 1,305 yards on just 279 carries, good for an average of 4,7 per attempt, and 13 touchdowns. As if that wasn’t enough, Gurley also has 64 catches for 788 yards and six touchdowns. If we combine those numbers, then we can see the former Georgia standout has been an absolutely dominant player. Gurley has 2,093 yards from scrimmage with a staggering 19 touchdowns. That’s impressive any way you want to look at it.
Gurley has also shown a remarkable improvement from his 2016 form. The (by that time) second-year RB only had 885 rushing yards on 278 carries, averaging a mere 3,2 per attempt. He added 43 catches for 327 yards and no scores through the air. Needless to say, that’s not good. But Gurley looks like a whole new player in 2017. He seems more committed, quicker, and more dangerous overall. Much of the credit should go to head coach Sean McVay, but Gurley deserves credit as well. He worked hard during the offseason, and that hard work is paying off.
Let’s take a look at Gurley’s performance against the Tennessee Titans this Sunday. Gurley accumulated 276 yards in Tennessee, with 118 of those through the ground and 158 through the air. With that performance, he became the first player in the NFL since Herschel Walker in 1986 to rack up 100 rushing yards and 150 receiving yards in the same game. Gurley’s yardage total was the highest number by any NFL player this season.
Gurley still has one game left on the schedule, but it remains to be seen whether he will play considering the Rams already clinched their Division. The same could be said about other MVP candidates such as Tom Brady or Le’Veon Bell, as Brees will certainly play given the Saints’ complicated scenario. But even if Gurley sits out the season finale against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, the running back deserves MVP consideration.
He has been dominant enough to receive the Award as the NFL’s best player in 2017. The numbers certainly back him up.