Todd Gurley has been good to fantasy football owners all season long but he might be causing some heartbreak in Week 16, as the Rams are going to sit the star running back against the Cardinals on Sunday.

This flies in the face of reports everyone heard before the 1 p.m. games began: Gurley wanted to play and even though the Rams wanted to hold him out, the running back was going to try and get on the field and fight through it.

It was understood Gurley would play the whole game and play normally. Instead, the Ras announced, Gurley won't even be active on Sunday. 

In his place, C.J. Anderson will likely get the start and will likely split reps with backup John Kelly. Anderson was added earlier this week off the street to supplement the Rams backfield.


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According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the plan was to play Gurley, but a Rams official told him that the running back "didn't feel great" when he attempted to get out on the field and prepare for the game.

The Rams are in an interesting spot: they obviously want to clinch a bye and would love to secure homefield advantage for the playoffs. But they don't have a tiebreaker over the Saints and need New Orleans to lose one game anyway. They also need to keep the Bears at bay; Chicago has a tiebreaker over the Rams as well and is just a game back of Los Angeles. 

Certainly, Los Angeles has to believe it can beat the lowly Cardinals without Gurley in the game. The Rams are likely going to lean on Jared Goff anyway -- they need to get the quarterback rolling ahead of the playoffs after a rough three-game stretch.

And with Gurley, it's always going to be more important for him to be ready for the postseason. Getting him on the field for a Week 16 game and potentially seeing him suffer a setback would be a nightmare for Los Angeles' playoff aspirations. 

If he sits in Week 16 and then maybe even in Week 17, Gurley could ultimately end up getting three weeks of rest and rehab. That could go a long way towards re-energizing the Rams offense as they head into the playoffs. From that perspective, it's a no brainer to keep Gurley on the bench for this matchup.