If you strictly look at rushing yards per game this season, there are only three backs averaging more than 90 yards per game in the NFL. Two of those three, Todd Gurley of the St. Louis Rams and Doug Martin of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will be pitted against each other in one of the awesome fantasy football matchups at BookMaker.eu.
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Gurley would probably finish second in the Offensive Rookie of the Year voting if the season ended right now, but he'll certainly have a shot to pave a path back to the top if the Rams can win this game with him being a big part of the reason for it. Jameis Winston, the presumed favorite at the moment, will be on the other side of the field trying to keep his team on the outskirts of the playoff picture in the NFC.
But this isn't about awards, rather who is going to amass more fantasy points, and the decision couldn't be much tougher between these two starting running backs.
In both cases, Gurley and Martin are workhorses. They're both on the field for around 75 percent of their teams snaps, and they both have backups in Tre Mason and Charles Sims respectively who can get hot in short spurts as well. Gurley though, also has Tavon Austin lining up in the backfield from time to time to swipe some carries.
Martin is probably the slightly bigger threat as a receiver out of the backfield. Gurley has 18 catches for 150 yards in his 10 starts this year, while Martin has 24 catches for 199 yards and a score.
Really, there isn't much separating these two for fantasy purposes. Martin is good for 14.7 fantasy points per game by BookMaker's scoring, while Gurley is averaging 15.4. The only separator is the fact that Gurley has two more total touchdowns in two fewer games played, though in the grand scheme of things, that's a margin which can easily be made up.
Martin is the far more consistent of the two options from our standpoint though, and that's why we think he should get the nod, particularly knowing that he's going to be a short underdog in this matchup.
Martin has had at least 81 rushing yards in four straight games and at least 11 carries in every game of the season. Sure, he's only found the end zone in six of his 13 games this year, but with 20+ carries in six of the 13 games and at least 90 yards on the ground in six of the 13 as well, there's a really good chance that Martin is going to meet at least one of those three criteria, which is sure to see him end up with at least nine or 10 fantasy points, a number which might be good enough to top Gurley.
It's also as if Gurley gets forgotten in this offense from time to time. He only had nine carries for 41 yards against the Cardinals and nine carries for 19 yards against the Bengals, both games of which were losses.
With the Rams slight underdogs in this game, it's easy to see a way in which the Bucs can jump out to an early lead. Whereas Tampa Bay seems committed to get the ball in Martin's hands a bit one way or the other, that just isn't the case for Gurley and the Rams. It's worth remember as well, that this is the first time Gurley has had to play on a short week of preparation in his NFL career, and we're not sure how he's going to react.
Martin is the far better of the two plays.
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