It appears that the St. Louis Rams are taking a cautious approach with rookie running back Todd Gurley. Coming back from a torn ACL isn't the easiest endeavour in the world in the first place. Now taking into account their unwillingness to rush Gurley back, head coach Jeff Fisher and company will not let Gurley suit up until he's 100 percent.
This obviously means the top-10 pick will not be suiting up for the preaseason.
It also means that the Rams believe Gurley will be out of action for the first couple games of the regular season.
Per NFL.com's Ian Rapoport:
"He won't play in the preseason. I'm told the Rams don't even expect him to be ready for the season. They believe he'll miss the first couple games, not wanting to risk injury until he's ready."
Rapoport went on to indicate that Gurley's surgically repaired knee ligament does look to be strong. However, it's now all about making sure the rookie can take hits on the field without having to worry about further injury. As you likely already know, fear of injury can lead to hesitation on the football field, which in and of itself can cause an injury.
Fantasy-wise, this is some big news. Gurley's current ADP has him between a late fourth-round pick and an early fifth-round pick. He's ahead of the likes of T.J. Yeldon, C.J. Spiller, Rashad Jennings and Andre Ellington. Unless you have already picked up two-to-three running backs at that point, you can't afford to draft a guy that's going to miss the first couple games of the season. More than that, there's a strong likelihood that Gurley will find himself eased into the starting role with Tre Mason already proven in the Rams backfield. This leaves us wondering whether Gurley will be a full-go for the first month-plus of the season.
The one option here is to pick up Mason at his current ADP—middle of the ninth round—and potentially ride him as an under-the-radar FLEX option. While picking up Gurley in the fourth or fifth round would still be risky, it would give you some insurance in case he never realizes his full potential as a rookie.