Offensive ROY: RB Todd Gurley, STL

Season Stats: 1,106 yds, 10 tds, 4.8 ypc, 21 rec, 188 yds

If Donald doesn’t get the DPOY award, then Gurley better get the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. This guy is a freak and showed it in his first year in the NFL.

After tearing his ACL and subsequently falling and rising on draft boards, Gurley was drafted by St. Louis with the 13th pick this past May with the hopes that he could be their offensive playmaker for the future.

Keyword: future.

Not Jeff Fisher or anyone else in the Rams organization or in the football world thought that Gurley was going to be back to 100 hundred percent and ready to contribute the way he did in 2015. His rehab was going to take time and even after his knee was healed, he needed time to adjust to the NFL.

Right? Wrong.

Gurley rehabbed, and was ready to play by Week 3. After only receiving six carries in that game, Gurley was ready for a full workload in Week 4 at Arizona (the same Arizona team that finished the year 13-3 with the sixth ranked rush defense). He ran for 146 yards on 19 carries.

Gurley followed his Week 4 breakout performance with a 159-yard showing at Green Bay in Week 5. He finally reached the end zone in Week 6, twice, as he ran past the Browns defense for 128 yards. Week 7 he rushed for 133 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

The 100-yard streak ended in Week 7. Gurley came down to earth a bit in the second half of the season, as teams began to figure out that he was the lone threat in St. Louis’ young offense. But, he was still remained productive.

He finished the season with over 1,000 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns–something that nobody expected him to do in his rookie year, let alone in 13 games and coming off of a torn ACL.

There were a lot of talented offensive rookies in the NFL this season, but no player accomplished what Todd Gurley was able to accomplish with the odds completely stacked against him.

Runner Up: QB Jameis Winston, TB