Rams 2021 free agents: Malcolm Brown has eclipsed Todd Gurley’s current value

Malcolm Brown is one of the last of a dying breed.

Brown, Michael Brockers, Aaron Donald, Rob Havenstein, Johnny Hekker. The last five Rams who played for St. Louis. Perhaps we are down to the final four.

Old enough to have played with Colt McCoy and Emmanuel Acho in college, Brown led the Longhorns in rushing as a junior but never flashed enough potential to be a legitimate draft prospect and the fact that we are writing about him as an NFL free agent six years later is worthy of admiration. No matter what happens from here on out, Malcolm, trust me: you did it.

You beat the odds. It’s not “all bonus time” from here on out. It’s been “bonus time” for Malcolm Brown since he started outlasting drafted running backs from the 2015 class like Matt Jones, Jeremy Langford, David Cobb, Jay Ajayi, Cameron Artis-Payne, and Karlos Williams. And potentially that list could continue to grow this year depending on the near futures of T.J. Yeldon, Ameer Abdullah, Tevin Coleman, Duke Johnson, and that-is-correct ... Todd Gurley.

As a matter of fact, let’s compare the two from 2020:

• Brown: 101 att, 419 yards, 5 TD, 4.1 YPC, 33 targets, 23 catches, 162 yards, 1 fumble, 7 broken tackles
• Gurley: 195 att, 678 yards, 9 TD, 3.5 YPC, 35 targets, 22 catches, 164 yards, 2 fumbles, 19 broken tackles

Malcolm Brown was never going to match the 2018 Todd Gurley role, but he damn sure nailed the 2019-2020 version.

It’s hard to say whether or not Brown has a lot of future left in the NFL but at this point he may actually be a more sought after commodity than his own former all-pro teammate. He’s had far less wear and tear on his body than most mid-20s running backs. Certainly a lot less than Gurley.

But Rams may prefer to look for the next Malcolm Brown in the same way that they found the first Malcolm Brown.