Todd Gurley finds himself on a new team in 2020. Is he still a top-12 running back in fantasy football now he’s on the Atlanta Falcons?
Only a few years ago, Todd Gurley was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year. He was the bell-cow back for the Los Angeles Rams, helping his team reach the Super Bowl. Well, the Rams are now his former team, as he was released by the team that drafted him. Gurley wasn’t out of work for long, as he signed a one-year deal to play for the Atlanta Falcons in 2020.
Though it seems to be a good fit schematically and culturally for Gurley, as he starred in college up the road in Athens at the University of Georgia, will he still be a top-12 running back in fantasy football? Is Gurley still good enough to be your RB1 in fantasy in 2020? The Fantasy Footballers investigate.
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While his carries and overall yardage went down in the Rams’ offense last season, Gurley was still an effective playmaker in the Los Angeles offense when the team was down in the red zone. Gurley will get his touchdowns, even if he’s not getting his touches. Interestingly enough, he wasn’t used all that much as a receiver out of the Rams’ backfield last season.
This is an area where he can thrive in Dirk Koetter’s offense in Atlanta. Though the Falcons will quickly abandon the run, as that is always the case in an offense run by Koetter for some reason, Gurley should be able to catch plenty of balls out of the backfield from his new Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan.
There are targets to be had in this Atlanta offense that will be without wide receiver Mohamed Sanu and tight end Austin Hooper from this time a year ago. Though wide receiver Laquon Treadwell and tight end Hayden Hurst will get some of those recently available targets, so will Gurley. Ryan loved throwing the ball to Gurley’s running back predecessor Devonta Freeman.
Overall, Gurley is still a low-end RB1 in fantasy football in 2020. Though he’s no longer a guy you can lean on in dynasty leagues, you can still get a good bit of value out of him on a year-by-year basis. As long as he’s used wisely in this Atlanta offense, Gurley can have a nice bounce-back season for himself with the Falcons.