from Re-ranking the 2015 RB class: The Todd Gurley conundrum

Gregg Rosenthal

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000806514/printable/reranking-the-2015-rb-class-the-todd-gurley-conundrum

What happened to Todd Gurley?

A year ago at this time, one could have made a case that he was the best player from the 2015 NFL draft class. Now it’s debatable whether he’s even one of his draft’s top three running backs.

With all the focus lately on 2017’s “can’t-miss” running backs, I couldn’t stop thinking about how quickly our assumptions about college prospects and pros transform. Yet, often those views don’t change quickly enough, which is how the Browns were able to get a first-round pick from the Colts in exchange for former No. 3 overall pick Trent Richardson after Cleveland knew he was a bust.

It wouldn’t be easy to top the 2015 crop of runners for depth and potential. Gurley was supposed to be the centerpiece. Instead, David Johnson — the seventh back taken (86th overall) — is the player with the Hall of Fame start to his career. Melvin Gordon and Jay Ajayi have already rewritten early expectations as pros, while an explosive second tier of runners like Tevin Coleman, Duke Johnson and Thomas Rawls is gaining a foothold.

I went back to watch Game Pass footage of this entire special group of runners to see how they all have evolved and where they fit in today, arranging the backs into the tiers you see below:

…

3) Todd Gurley, Los Angeles Rams

Originally drafted: Round 1, No. 10 overall.

The need to explain away Gurley’s disastrous second season is mystifying. The short version goes like this: The Rams’ offense was run by paste-eating middle schoolers, and Gurley had no chance. No further analysis necessary.

Gurley’s 278 carries tell a different story. At least four to five times each game, Gurley had daylight to work with. He often ran up the backs of his offensive linemen or was arm-tackled. If Gurley’s game isn’t about making defenders miss, then he’ll need to run through defenders more often. He simply didn’t show the same burst, second effort or power that he did in his Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign. The Rams coaching staff noticed, often taking him out of the game in key situations or failing to give him the ball late with the lead.

For a window into Gurley’s season, let’s travel to Seattle last December. On fourth-and-1 inside the Seahawks’ 10-yard line early in the game, Gurley got the ball on a pitch to the left. He had his choice of multiple lanes and elected to take on Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, only needing to gain a few inches with a full head of steam. Wagner stood him up cold and eventually pushed Gurley backward with some help. It was an example of Wagner’s greatness, but Gurley also should have made the play.

Of course the season wasn’t all Gurley’s fault. The criticism of the Rams’ passing game and offensive line was accurate. Still, that’s not the point. Gurley was supposed to be a transcendent talent, the kind of player who should make his teammates look better. Try to imagine Adrian Peterson or Barry Sanders or even Corey Dillon carrying the ball 278 times with a 3.2 yards-per-carry average and only two runs over 20 yards, even with lousy offenses around them. Something was wrong.

Trying to explain Gurley’s down season: This is the part where it’s really tempting to play amateur psychologist and guess what was in Gurley’s mind or heart last season, to interpret those shakes of the head or the lackluster runs in garbage time. I went into this exercise hoping to see something positive from Gurley, but aside from his occasional light feet and graceful glide, it just wasn’t there. At his best out of the I-formation, Gurley was The Franchise, until quarterback Jared Goff — who is more comfortable out of the shotgun — came along as the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. How to split the difference is up to new coach Sean McVay.

McVay should help considerably by modernizing the offense. Gurley could bounce back on the strength of big plays as a top running back, and no one would be surprised. He showed that much talent as a rookie. This ranking is reflective of Gurley righting himself as a solid starter. But Gurley has to show himself to be a different player this year, to recognize that his sophomore slump was about more than his teammates. Otherwise, it will be time to trust what Gurley shows on Sundays over those scouting reports from the 2015 draft season.

Peter King

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/08/jay-cutler-tv-nfl-quarterbacks-offseason-draft-peter-king

• Arizona and San Francisco and the Jets (and perhaps Cleveland, depending on the rookie season of DeShone Kizer) pushed off their quarterback-of-the-future choices until 2018, when vets Kirk Cousins of Washington and Jimmy Garappolo of New England could be free agents, and the college crop of passers could be better than this year. I like that.

• Underplayed story of the draft: Seattle drafting a corner (Shaquill Griffin) and three safeties (Delano Hill, Tedric Thompson, Mike Tyson), respectively, at 90, 95, 111 and 187 overall, a clarion call to the not-as-young-as-they-used-to-be back end of the defense—Earl Thomas (age 28), Kam Chancellor (29) and Richard Sherman (29).

THEY’RE NOT STARTING

Tony Romo. He knows he could have quarterbacked Houston if he wanted to. But he got a once-in-a-decade offer—walking off the field into a network’s top analyst job, for CBS—which sped his decision.

Jay Cutler. The man with 134 more career passing yards than Kurt Warner and 14 more career touchdown passes than Ken Stabler drew scant interest from the only team that made sense—Houston. That probably told him everything. Cutler’s legacy will be that he underachieved (11 years, one playoff win) while being the most media-repellant quarterback of his era.

Colin Kaepernick. So Kaepernick has bought a place in downtown Manhattan and lives in the big city fairly anonymously. I spent a long draft weekend with the Niners in California, and there are those in the building who think Kaepernick might actually rather do social justice work full-time than play quarterback. He emerges in New York City occasionally for noble cause work, last week donating 100 men’s suits to a parole office in Queens, so recipients, recently out of prison, would look more presentable when going on job interviews.

I haven’t talked to Kaepernick, so I have no idea what his gut is telling him about what to do with his life. But it’s crazy that a quarterback who four years ago was coming off a Super Bowl appearance and looked to be a long-term answer has no team now and no hot NFL prospects that anyone can see.

If I were a pro scout or a GM with a starting or backup quarterback need, I’d be on a plane to New York to have lunch with Kaepernick to ask him where he sees his life going. And if he sees a football future, and if I had a great quarterback coach (Sean McVay with the Rams, Bruce Arians in Arizona), I’d sign him to an incentive-laden contract. Right now.

Robert Griffin III. He’s been unemployed for two months after the Browns cut him. The career of the 2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year is in more jeopardy than Kaepernick’s. Regardless of what he, his family or Washington owner Daniel Snyder thinks, Griffin’s biggest error was being the anti-Brady.

Instead of simply being willing to be coached hard by proven quarterback developers Mike and Kyle Shanahan (and I understand all the divisive tributaries that go along with that), Griffin and his family thought they knew best. The resulting wedge driven between him and his coaches, on top of the knee injury he suffered in the playoffs in January 2013, have been factors he hasn’t recovered from.

Josh McCown. The stats don’t show it, but he’s a good quarterback to have on the roster, a team-first guy who might be best suited getting Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg ready to play. Whoever plays, the Jets will be in the quarterback market in 2018. All in, in fact.

Ryan Fitzpatrick. Not so stunning he’s on the street. But like McCown, he’s a smart, low-ego guy who’d be a good fit on a team developing a young quarterback.

Here’s the commonality I see: The five teams with weak or unproven starters (Browns, Jets, Texans, Bears, 49ers) all have coaches who want to do it their way—developing players they want to build around. Hue Jackson’s that way. Kyle Shanahan and Bill O’Brien too. And GMs Mike Maccagnan of the Jets and Ryan Pace of the Bears have made it clear they prefer to develop their quarterback of the future, either through the draft or by signing a young free-agent with a spotless record who is totally devoted to football.

Fair or unfair, Cutler’s got a reputation of being an island. When Hue Jackson coached Oakland, he wanted to draft Kaepernick but was trumped by the Niners; now Jackson has shown zero interest in Kaepernick. Coaches want team guys, and they want football devotees. Not all great quarterbacks have had those traits, but look at teams that were desperate for quarterbacks entering this off-season. Houston and Cleveland chose to draft college players with question marks.

Watson and Kizer, those teams figured, will be devoted to football, clay willing to be molded. We’ll see if those choices work. But if you’d told me three months ago the NFL would open 2017 with Romo, Cutler and Kaepernick in occupations other than football, I’d have been stunned.

CNN: Subpoenas Issued To Flynn Associates

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/05/09/cnn-subpoena-issued-to-flynn-associates?via=desktop&source=copyurl

According to a report in CNN, federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. They are seeking business records as part of a larger probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The news comes on the day that President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey. The subpoenas, which were issued in recent weeks, according to CNN, were received by associates who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. Investigators have reportedly been looking into possible wrongdoing in the way in which Flynn handled disclosures about payments from clients tied to Russia and Turkey.

According to a report in The New York Times, FBI director James Comey was addressing a group of employees in Los Angeles on Tuesday night when a television report in the background said that he was being fired by President Trump. The Times said that in response, Comey initially laughed and said it was a funny prank. His staff then reportedly ushered him into a nearby office. In the office, they confirmed to Comey that he had been fired. Shortly after that, a letter was delivered to the headquarters of the FBI informing them of the decision.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Tuesday night that FBI Director James Comey should be fired in part for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. “The current FBI director is an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice,” Rosenstein wrote in the letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “He deserves our appreciation for his public service. As you and I have discussed, however, I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand the refusal to accept the nearly university judgment that he was mistaken. Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.” Sessions recommended to President Donald Trump that he terminate Comey based on Rosenstein’s findings.

Why there’s hope for Jared Goff in 2017

Sage Rosenfels

Sage Rosenfels is a former 12-year NFL quarterback who writes, does radio, and podcasts about the NFL and college football.

https://www.thescore.com/news/1297374

We are less than two weeks removed from one of the most exciting NFL drafts in recent memory. All 32 teams feel they have upgraded their roster with exciting young talent who will make an immediate impact, as well as others who will develop into important pieces in the future. The draft is one of the NFL’s best hype machines, as it gives hope to each team – even the Browns – that their future is bright. After the lights are dimmed and the draft stage is deconstructed, it’s time for the players and coaches to get to work.
Some of the players drafted will be immediate NFL stars, while others will soon be out of the league, even first-rounders. Of all the positions, quarterbacks have been the trickiest players to scout. Quarterbacks taken in the first round are a huge gamble – some have immediate success while others never come close to being worth their high-pick status. On occasion, great quarterbacks are afterthoughts who become NFL stars (like Tom Brady and Kurt Warner). Drafting a quarterback high is a huge risk that can change an organization, for better or worse, for years to come.

Jared Goff is one year removed from being the first overall selection in the 2016 NFL Draft. Before and after the selection, he was complimented by nearly every analyst as a future NFL star who would lead the Los Angeles Rams for the next decade. A lot has changed in the last year for Goff. The organization fired Jeff Fisher and replaced him with the youngest head coach in NFL history, Sean McVay. Goff’s rookie year was memorable for all of the wrong reasons, as poor play from both him and his team as a whole resulted in the coaching overhaul.

This is what happens every year in the NFL. Young men who are only a few months removed from playing college football are expected to make huge impacts on struggling franchises, many of which haven’t won consistently for decades. Every year, many of these players don’t live up to the hype, as the honeymoon period of the draft quickly disappears.

Goff knows this all too well. Every rookie has hopes that they will come into the league and shine immediately. Some, like Dak Prescott, excel right out of the gate by landing in a perfect situation. Others, like Goff, end up on teams that even Brady wouldn’t be able to fix.

This is why McVay was hired. He and fellow first-year coach Kyle Shanahan are two young minds who view offensive football differently. McVay and Shanahan worked together in Washington and both are responsible for developing Kirk Cousins, who went from a fourth-round draft pick to a $25-million franchise player in just a few seasons. Both McVay and Shanahan view offensive football from one angle, the quarterback. Everything they do, even the running game, is with the quarterback’s success in mind. The pass-protection, route combinations, personnel decisions, and play-calling are done to put their quarterback in the best position to succeed. With Goff having a less-than-mediocre rookie year, this is undoubtedly one of the reasons McVay was hired. The Los Angeles Rams’ ownership bet on Goff one year ago. Now they are betting on McVay to maximize their young quarterback’s talents.

I spoke to McVay about Goff last week regarding the first few months of their relationship. Though they have had only one minicamp, I could feel the genuine excitement in McVays’ voice regarding his signal-caller. When analyzing quarterbacks, McVay has a certain set of criteria he uses to make a decision on their abilities.

First, is the quarterback a pure passer? To succeed in the NFL as a QB, you must be able to make all the throws with accuracy. After studying Goff’s film and going through the Rams’ first minicamp, McVay is convinced that Goff’s arm isn’t a concern. “He can make every throw in this offense and I was particularly excited to see him push the ball down the field, even when he had the pocket collapsing around him,” said McVay. The second part of his response should not be overlooked. The combine and private workouts can give a false impression as to the real throwing conditions for a quarterback. Rarely in the NFL, especially on deeper throws, does a quarterback have a clean pocket. The ability to create velocity, while still being accurate, without being able to step into the throw is an important aspect of the position. Goff has this subtle but valuable asset.

Secondly, McVay said Goff showed he will stand in the pocket and deliver a throw while defensive linemen and linebackers are breaking down the protection. The courage it takes to do this separates the “combine” quarterbacks from those who actually succeed at the highest level. No quarterback likes getting hit. A young quarterback who stands in the pocket the extra split second to make a throw, knowing he will endure physical pain, gains a tremendous amount of respect from the players and coaches on his team. Many of the quarterbacks who are drafted high, and then fail, don’t have the courage to take the punishment necessary to play the position. Look through the lists of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and you won’t find one that didn’t take a beating during their career. A QB who can deal with pain is a necessity for a team to win on a consistent basis. The importance of making a throw must overshadow the pain of bruised ribs, especially for a young quarterback who must earn respect from the veterans on his team.

McVay was also encouraged by Goff’s ability to take what they had been working on in the classroom and transfer it to the field. Every NFL offense is unique. Plays which look the same on paper in different offenses many times have small details that can vastly affect the outcome. The NFL is a game of inches, and these details are more important for a quarterback than any other position. “I am encouraged by Jared’s ability to absorb our information and bring it to the field,” stated McVay. “He is absorbing a lot of information and he seems to easily understand, communicate, and execute the new offense.”

Over the next few months, Goff and his teammates must continue to learn these fine details in meetings and then bring them to the practice field. After one minicamp, Goff has shown he can do this with ease.

Lastly, their are various ways to excel as an NFL starting quarterback. Some, like Aaron Rodgers, are talented enough to execute a play just like it was designed, as well as make magic happen when something has broken down. Others, such as Michael Vick, excel more at off-scheduled plays rather than simply executing the offense. Then there are the Cousins types who don’t have the “playmaking” talent of some other QBs, but are masters at quickly progressing through their reads to find the open receiver. The quarterbacks who can sort through all of the information presented to him – from the play called, to the defense before and after the snap – and consistently find the open receiver are playing at a higher mental level than those who just make plays. In the long run, these “executors” are what coaches look for.

Fortunately for the Rams, Goff has shown he can be a mix of both executor and playmaker. Though he won’t be compared to Rodgers any time soon, he has shown signs of both positive traits. The Rams’ offense, just like Washington’s and San Fran’s, values execution over simply “making plays.” By the way, McVay and Shanahan have designed the concepts in their running and passing attack to play off each other, so having a quarterback who can efficiently run this type of attack is invaluable. This is why both Cousins and reigning MVP Matt Ryan have excelled recently. On the other hand, anybody who watched Goff play at Cal saw his ability to make plays with his feet. He isn’t a runner, but he does have enough athletic ability to extend plays and find an open receiver downfield.

According to McVay, Goff has a lot of the same characteristics as Cousins and Ryan. He can make the same throws, shows the level of toughness required, absorbs and translates information easily, and has a yearning to be coached. This has me looking forward to Goff’s second season. Coaching and offensive style have a huge influence on a quarterback’s ability to succeed. Based off Goff’s physical and mental talents, Rams fans should be excited for the future of their team.

After my initial analysis of the situation in L.A., I firmly believe we will see a very different Goff in 2017 and beyond. While the early feedback is based off non-contact practices, all signs point to a solid relationship between quarterback and coach. The Rams may have improved their team significantly this offseason and it may have nothing to do with the over-hyped draft. A quarterback in the right offense can improve a team much more than any player (or players) added to an NFL roster.

For the Rams, only time will tell.

joemad wrote:

. I think better game day management from the coaching staff could’ve won those games…

I never saw just one cause. Game management, to me, means they’re also accounting for a hundred things going wrong with the team that shouldn’t be going wrong, so it;s doggone difficult to determine what things they were compensating for in what ways. If the string section is missing how does the conductor make up for it kind of thing.

The team ought to have been able to run, too, and the fact they couldn’t goes to everyone, including Gurley.

alyoshamucci wrote:

I wanted to put this video here because it has shows some of the characteristics I attached to during his career.

I think this is the best video of all of his skills ..

He could be one of the biggest steals in a long time … He may need blocking technique … but his receiving is far beyond Quick … and he’s just as tall and battles twice as hard.

… his ability to track a ball in flight over his shoulder is unreal.

His ability to get up over and flatten his arms over the top of a defender and take the ball away … his high pointing and tracking abilities … his beating and running away from Tredavious White (football speed) … his outmuscling Marlon Humphrey on the goal line … his special teams skills … and his comfort making one handed grabs.

I know that Cooper Kupp is likely to be the rookie starter because of his ability to handle the playbook … but my choice on opening day would be to have Reynolds and Kupp outside, and Woods in the slot … with Tavon in only on gadget plays.

I get the feeling that the league was off put by Justin Hunter and forgot that Reynolds may be more AJ Green than Justin Hunter.

Why did he slide?

1) I think teams can get passionate about a specific type of player and forget what they’re doing.

2) I think the need for WRs was really low this year.

3) The talent of this years draft on defense was unreal.

4) Groupthink on WRs this year was that it was a weak class, rather than saying what it was “Not elite or high end, but really rich in specific types of talent with question marks around it” … there are WRs that could be 1s all the way down this draft to the 7th round … but they all need a little work and to take their opportunities.

That’s all I got. lol

InvaderRam wrote:

goff and gurley. the offense hinges on them doing wel

Okay, very true…and so far…

GURLEY AUGUST 2016

GURLEY MAY 2017