more buzz on Gurley

Bucky Brooks@BuckyBrooks
Todd Gurley will continue to fuel debates in war rooms about RBs and their overall value. Although TG has played at an elite level as an RB1, the durability concerns will lead some execs to continue to value “RBBC” over a bell cow.

Others will simply draft a talented RB early in the 1st and never make an attempt to sign him to a lucrative 2nd contract. Teams will use the franchise tag or other vehicles to pay them on a year to year basis after rookie contract is done.. It’s a dirty game for RBs

Rumors surrounding Todd Gurley’s offseason continue to pick up and the news doesn’t look great for the running back

Will Brinson

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/todd-gurley-injury-rams-reportedly-love-his-potential-replacement-rb-done-as-every-down-bell-cow/

The concern over Todd Gurley’s knee and long-term football health cropped up last year and has continued on throughout the offseason. It’s largely been an unknown, the Super Bowl’s biggest mystery. But perhaps we’ve now been given more information than we wanted, with the news coming out that Gurley is not going to be a workhorse for the Rams moving forward.

For starters, there’s the comments from Sean McVay this week, acknowledging that Gurley wants to play at a lower weight than he did in previous years.

“I want him to feel most comfortable. That’s the most important thing, what he feels he can most function at, being the all-purpose back he’s been and that’s where we’re at,” McVay said to reporters, via NFL.com. “So he says, ‘I’d rather play five, 10 pounds lighter,’ and he’s going to feel better about that, then that’s exactly what we’ll do. He’s earned the right to be able to tell us how he’s feeling with the give and take. As long as he’s got a why, which I know he does, we’re always receptive to those things.”

That’s fairly innocuous in the grand scheme of things, right? Running back wants to lose weight ahead of season is not a new storyline. But given that Gurley’s been a workhorse for the Rams the last several years and that he wasn’t able to carry the load down the stretch of 2018 — C.J. Anderson had to step in and help — it should be concerning that the coach is willing to let his running back drop some weight, presumably as a way to make life easier on his knee.

Also concerning? A report from NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport that Gurley’s days of “just being the straight-up, every-down bell cow are probably over, just based on his knee, his age, the position, the amount of carries he’s had.”

The Rams made sure to cover their bases in the draft with Gurley, using a third-round pick on Darrell Henderson out of Memphis. Nicknamed the “Human First Down,” Henderson is an explosive player capable of ripping off huge runs. And, apparently, made quite an impression on McVay.

On his podcast, Adam Schefter of ESPN said that Henderson is “a guy that I believe Sean McVay thought was THE most dangerous offensive player in the draft.” Meaning that yes, the Rams “LOVE Darrell Henderson.”

That’s not great for Gurley’s future as a bell-cow back and a feature guy in McVay’s offense. As our group of Fantasy Football Today experts noted on CBS Sports HQ Tuesday, it’s almost impossible to draft Gurley very high in fantasy as a result.

It’s even more concerning for Gurley’s long-term health. Can you really buy into the belief that he’s going to get better when we’ve heard things all offseason about a “drastic option” the Rams could consider if Gurley can’t get better and when you hear words like “arthritis” thrown around.

Contractually the Rams are stuck. They gave Gurley a $60 million contract back before the 2018 season. At one point last year, Gurley was a legitimate MVP candidate. Now he looks like he might be a salary cap albatross.

For the coming season, Gurley has a cap hit of $9.2 million. If cut, he would have a dead cap hit of $34.85 million. He is very much uncuttable — even a post June 1 release would result in $22.25 million in dead cap space this year and $12.6 million in dead cap space next year.

In 2020, Gurley has a $17.25 million cap hit and counts for $25.65 million in dead cap space if released. A post June 1 cut next year would equate to $17.25 million in dead cap space in 2020 and $8.4 million in dead cap space in 2021. His 2019 and his 2020 salaries were already guaranteed back in March of this year.

The Rams have a 24-year-old (he’ll turn 25 in August) running back with an apparently degenerative knee condition who they absolutely cannot cut for the next two seasons. It’s one of the most bizarre turns we’ve seen, at least in terms of value from one year to the next.

Los Angeles can save almost $5 million in cap space by cutting him before 2021 and almost certainly planned out his contract to move on after the 2021 season anyway, barring Gurley looking like a dominant player heading into 2022.

Maybe this all ends up being unnecessary handwringing, a part of the offseason that always features us discussing player injuries in a heightened way. But Gurley has a lengthy injury history and there are far too many red flags dating back multiple months for it simply to be glossed over. The Rams have a very serious situation on their hands.

.@MJD has an update on @TG3II 👀 #LARams pic.twitter.com/LfWZI1JiLy

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) June 6, 2019

Todd Gurley downplays knee injury: ‘This is small’ compared to ACL recovery

Todd Gurley downplays knee injury: 'This is small' compared to ACL recovery

This time last year, Rams fans and NFL analysts were talking about whether Todd Gurley could win MVP after finishing second to Tom Brady in 2017. Instead of discussing his high ceiling this year, the hot topic surrounding Gurley is the health of his knee.

After he missed two regular-season games and was limited during the Rams’ postseason run, it’s easy to see why his knee is getting the most attention. Gurley didn’t do any on-field work at OTAs and wasn’t out there for minicamp Tuesday, but after working out, he met with the media and ensured everyone his knee is fine.

“I’m fine, I’m training, I’m doing what I’m doing in the offseason – what I’ve always done up to this point, so it’s just part of getting ready for training camp and the season,” Gurley said.

He even put to rest any notion that he’s changed his offseason training regimen.

“No, just same workouts, whatever my trainer tells me to do.”

Gurley has nothing left to prove after winning Offensive Player of the Year in 2017 and being an All-Pro the last two seasons. Getting on the field for OTAs likely wouldn’t have done him (or anyone) much good, aside from maybe quieting rumors about his knee.

“I don’t feel like I need to do OTAs. I know what I’ve done, I know what I can do,” he said.

Earlier, Sean McVay confirmed Gurley will do on-field work in training camp when the Rams report to UC Irvine on July 27. The goal is for Gurley to be as fresh and healthy as possible for Week 1, so it’s unclear whether he’ll be limited at all in camp.

One thing’s for sure, though: Gurley will be ready to go when practices get back underway next month.

“I’m ready for camp. It’ll be here, slowly but surely. And we’ll all be back together,” he said.

Gurley understandably didn’t reveal much about his knee, as he never does, but he was asked how it compared to his recovery from a torn ACL in college. It’s no comparison to the All-Pro running back, who downplayed the impact of this current situation.

“I had bigger problems to worry about coming out of college. This is small,” said Gurley.

No one besides Gurley truly knows how he’s feeling or whether his knee will be an issue this season, but based on his comments, he doesn’t seem overly worried.

If ‘load management’ works in the NBA, then it should with Todd Gurley

Vincent Bonsignore

https://theathletic.com/1024384/2019/06/12/if-load-management-works-in-the-nba-then-it-should-with-todd-gurley/

Whatever we think, believe, or have heard about the condition of Todd Gurley’s left knee, one indisputable fact remains and often gets overlooked in the aftermath of the confusing end to his 2018 season: As Gurley took the field for the Rams’ Week 14 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he was very much in the discussion for his second straight NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

Going into the third-to-last game of the regular season, Gurley ranked second in the NFL in rushing yards (1,202), first in rushing touchdowns (15), third in yards from scrimmage (1,707), and first in total touchdowns (19).

Up to that point, it was business as usual for one of the NFL’s most dynamic offensive forces.

And in retrospect, perhaps a key clue. The Rams remain optimistic that the plan in place for Gurley in 2019 will mean much more of the Gurley we saw through the first 13 games of last year and less of the one who missed the final two games of the regular season, the one who played like a shell of himself in two of the Rams’ three postseason games.

As Gurley himself pointed out Tuesday, after the Rams wrapped up their offseason program, he considers the current situation with his knee a “small problem” compared to what he faced five years ago as a junior at Georgia when he underwent reconstructive knee surgery.

That confidence flies in the face of the gloom-and-doom speculation that’s run rampant almost since the end of the Super Bowl, most of which I take with a grain of salt.

In the absence of solid information, conjecture always reigns. And for whatever reason, it’s usually in our nature to assume the worst.

I’ve cautioned against that type of dire thinking time and again this offseason. That’s not sweeping under the rug any potential lingering issues with Gurley’s knee. In fact, I suspect he’s dealing with a condition that absolutely needs to be adequately managed. And I’m certainly not ruling out a decline in Gurley’s performance. Perhaps even a sharp one.

But I also believe the personal training staff Gurley is working with, along with the Rams’ medical staff, have a pretty good idea what they are dealing with and have a sound plan to manage it.

The key will be adhering to it. And the ultimate goal will be to ensure Gurley is physically sound, even beyond the 16-game regular season. And not merely as a good back, but the lethal offensive force he’s been almost from the moment he stepped foot in the NFL.

It’s much like the “load management” plan that successfully got Kawhi Leonard through the NBA regular season and left him physically fit enough to carry the Toronto Raptors to the brink of an NBA championship.

In fact, Leonard is a poignant reminder of how ill-advised all the doomsday speculation about Gurley might be.

If you remember, Leonard, the former San Antonio Spurs star, missed all but nine games during the 2017-18 season while dealing with a mysterious quad injury. Words such as atrophy and degenerative and ossification were bandied about. Much like the murkiness surrounding Gurley’s situation — we’ve heard about arthritis and the potential of stem cell treatment — there was some speculation Leonard might never be the same player again.

After trading for Leonard, though, the Raptors outlined a specific management plan for the situation.

The details remain mostly vague — we have to assume a lot goes on behind the scenes to manage his physical fitness — but part of the plan was restricting Leonard’s availability in back-to-back game situations. Interestingly, while he averaged a career-high 34 minutes per game, he played in just 60 of the 82 games overall. The Raptors focused on the big picture, but never at the expense of the immediate one.

Obviously, it had the desired effect. And as Leonard recently acknowledged, there’s no guarantee that without that plan, he would be playing as well as he is right now.

Much like the Raptors, the Rams have been tight-lipped about what they have in mind for Gurley. It includes his workload during training camp, whatever schedule and treatment outline he’ll follow during game weeks and how he’ll be used in terms of the number of carries and snaps he’ll receive each week.

All we know is Gurley was held out of all on-field activities during OTAs while working behind the scenes with his personal trainer and the Rams’ training staff. But it would be a mistake to assume his limited offseason work or the hushed nature in how the Rams are publicly handling the situation means a worst-case scenario is at hand.

For now, it’s all part of the plan.

Circling back to the Eagles game in Week 14, something obviously happened to Gurley’s knee, although exactly what happened remains murky to this day. Did it take a big hit? Did he tweak it? Was it strained while making a hard cut? Or was a surgically repaired knee simply showing signs of wear and tear after a long season of usage?

Maybe, as I’ve long suspected, a combination of all of the above resulted in a slower than usual recovery time for a moderate injury.

Whatever the case, the Rams held Gurley out of their last two regular-season games. And aside from a brilliant — albeit condensed — performance against the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs, he never seemed quite right the rest of the season.

The confusing manner in which Gurley was used and how he performed both in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl — and the lack of any real clarification about what was really going on — has led to boundless speculation over the last four months.

Meanwhile, the Rams haven’t publicly given any explanation or diagnosis, other than occasionally describing Gurley’s issue as a matter of “wear and tear.”

That sentiment is consistent with what’s been shared with me privately as well, sometimes with the reminder that Gurley was soaring through the first 13 games of the season in dynamic fashion and that he looked fine against the Cowboys in the divisional round. Gurley also delivered a critical six-yard touchdown run in the NFC title game and looked perfectly fine while breaking off a beautiful — albeit nullified — 13-yard run in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl to set the Rams up in Patriots territory.

The point being, the Rams feel good, publicly and privately, about where things stand with their star running back and, just as important, with the plan they have in place to get him through next season.