Todd Gurley Comments on Leonard Fournette Possibly Sitting out 2016 LSU Season

There has been talk that LSU star running back Leonard Fournette should sit out his junior season to ensure he doesn't suffer a serious injury before the 2017 draft. 

St. Louis Rams rookie running back Todd Gurley doesn't agree with that notion one bit, however. 

"Come back and play, man," Gurley told 99.9 The Fan's Big GameDay on Saturday, per Will Brinson of CBS Sports. "We don't care about all that, just waiting to go play for the NFL. We're football players. We've been playing this game for our whole life for free or with money. We don't care about that. We play for the love of the game."

If anybody could sympathize with Fournette trying to avoid injury, it would be Gurley, who tore his ACL during his final year with Georgia. Despite that injury, Gurley was still a first-round pick of the Rams in the 2015 NFL draft and has rushed for 664 yards and four touchdowns in six games during his rookie season after missing the team's first two contests.

Fournette, meanwhile, looks like an NFL star in the making. The sophomore has rushed for 1,474 yards and 17 touchdowns and remains in the running for the Heisman Trophy, though losses against Alabama and Arkansas in consecutive weeks—while being held to a total of 122 rushing yards in those contests—have hurt his Heisman chances.

Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com is not confident Fournette will be able to regain his spot as the favorite for the award, stating, "Fournette will need a pair of monster performances against Ole Miss and Texas A&M to resuscitate his chances. And he'll definitely need a pair of wins. And right now, it's hard to feel optimistic about either of those prospects."

It seems unlikely that Fournette would simply take a year off from football. Barring a catastrophic injury, he would likely still be a very high pick even if he was hurt during his junior year, and sitting out an entire season would hinder his development as a player. Gurley's draft stock didn't take that big of a hit even after an ACL tear, something Fournette should factor into any decision he makes.