Gurley's Off-season Conditioning is Impressing

[NateDawg122]

Apparently Gurley's off-season work is impressing the Rams, according to this quick report from BR: http://teamstre.am/2p9RNdT

Keep in mind that it is Bleacher Report but this picture from training camp seems to indicate Gurley isn't messing around this year:

Here's to hoping he and the rest of the offense come out with their hair on fire this year!

 

[jap]

Will we have a Battering Ram RB behind a Battering Ram OL?

 

[Ramlock]

I know a UGA fan that speaks very highly of Todd Gurley's character.

Looks good to me.....rock and roll

I'm pulling for 30

 

[Soul Surfer]

Will we have a Battering Ram RB behind a Battering Ram OL?

.....with a Battering Ram Fullback leading the way.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Listen...defenses are going to sleep on #30 and everyone else early this season and continue to send the farm after Goff.

"It's gonna be beautiful man....beautiful!!!"

 

[Legatron4]

Dude looks swoll as fuck.

 

[ReddingRam]

I'm pretty sure i mentioned this early last season during TC, but I was worried that the whole "Hollywood" thing might have gotten to Todd a bit. Seeing him doing all the commercials and what not i was worried that he might have got untracked a bit. then when the season started, he didn't look the same either physically or performance wise. He looked skinnier. His "trunk" was gone.
This report kinda backs this up that his "training was inconsistent" . I'm glad that the season got into his craw and he definitely looks happier, in better shape and determined. It's a very good sign.

 

[den-the-coach]

@ReddingRam is right on point about the Hollywood angle and IMHO, it came too easy for Gurley in his rookie year and all the accolades that followed as well. Whereas you only have to look at the Chargers Marlon Gordon and see the improvement from year one to year two and see how he improved dramatically.

Gurley is getting back to basics and the addition of Whitworth and John Sullivan at Center will benefit Gurley as well. Offensive Line Coach Aaron Kromer is renown for having dramatic improvements in the running game and I believe that will be the strength of the Ram offense in 2017.

 

[ReddingRam]

@ReddingRam is right on point about the Hollywood angle and IMHO, it came too easy for Gurley in his rookie year and all the accolades that followed as well. Whereas you only have to look at the Chargers Marlon Gordon and see the improvement from year one to year two and see how he improved dramatically.

Gurley is getting back to basics and the addition of Whitworth and John Sullivan at Center will benefit Gurley as well. Offensive Line Coach Aaron Kromer is renown for having dramatic improvements in the running game and I believe that will be the strength of the Ram offense in 2017.

I think the team as a whole went through it. there was a LOT of "distraction" ( the move, Hard Knocks, "Hollywood",etc.) with very little "discipline" being demanded to buy the Fisher & Co. staff. I think focus was lost by everyone, but TG was doing soooooo many commercials, endorsements, appearances ... I just was worried about it all. Then came the season and in at least my own mind, I thought that was a big part of his problem. He just didn't look like the same guy from 2015.

Now it seems we have a determined Todd Gurley back as well as a bit more focused team as a whole. We have a coaching staff that is not only very adept at offensive prowess, but also a staff that is full of "teachers". Not just coaches. A new sense of "TEAM" in the building, a fresh and talented group of weapons and lastly ... COMPETITION.

Like I said, we will have growing pains, but this team is on the right track. I'm not getting any sense of any area of the team being neglected, ala Fisher & Co. with their "Defense First" mentality. I myself even feel "refreshed". :yay::homer::mrburnsevil:

 

[RamBall]

Will we have a Battering Ram RB behind a Battering Ram OL?

Dont forget the battering Ram FB.

 

[DaveFan'51]

I look at it this way. Last year Gurley had a Sophmore-slump. Now he's learned his lesson, and he's ready to Rock n' Roll!!:snicker::banana::rockon::cheers::shades:

 

[den-the-coach]

I'm not getting any sense of any area of the team being neglected, ala Fisher & Co. with their "Defense First" mentality. I myself even feel "refreshed".

No doubt that McVay as been a breath of fresh air for many of us and I also love how grounded McVay is as he alluded to being very confident, his response was "I haven't coached a game yet." Anyway I always got the sense from Fisher that it was not scheme, it was about just motivating players, like putting all the guys the Rams drafted in Washington during the coin toss for RGIII, that's fine, but scheme is what makes the total difference and if the team does not believe in it, well, it can go south in a hurry.

You only have to look at the job being done by Adam Gase in South Beach to see how a team grows with a Head Coach and there belief in him and how that carries over game in and game out. Agreed there will be some growing pains, but for the first time since 1999 I truly believe the Rams have the right regime in place to finally propel this team upward where we as fans deserve to be.

 

[PARAM]

Offensive Line Coach Aaron Kromer is renown for having dramatic improvements in the running game and I believe that will be the strength of the Ram offense in 2017.

He's had some turnarounds to be sure. To measure them is tough because as an OL coach he's asked to develop the OL to perform best at what the offense primarily wants to do, rush or pass. Ideally both, but that's not always possible. Looking over Kromer's career as an OL coach, he's had a couple dramatic turnarounds in the run game. I will say this.....every place he's gone, with rare exception, they've protected the QB.

He took the Saints from #28 in rushing to #6 in his first year. Of course they returned to #28 the following year, then back up to #6 in his 3rd season. With New Orleans (2009-2012), Brees was always one of the least sacked QBs in the league while attempting the most passes. One exception is 2009, when the Saints finished #15 in pass attempts, #6 in rushing and had the #1 offense. They were the 4th least sacked team and Brees should get his share of the credit for the low sack totals. I'm sure McVay will teach Goff the proper way to avoid them.

But it's hard to measure the impact of an OL coach. His first year in Oakland (2002), they were #2 in pass attempts and allowed the 17th fewest sacks. The next year, Gannon's last, they allowed the 4th most sacks and when Kerry Collins took over in 2004, they were 4th in pass attempts and 5th in least sacks allowed. We might think that Gannon was responsible for the increased sack numbers in 2003 and we'd probably be right.

Kromer's resume is full of successful seasons, with good running teams who protect the QB. And that is exactly what the Rams need. A stud in Gurley and a young QB in Goff. If Kromer can accomplish a good combination of run blocking and pass pro, McVay will be able to dial up everything in his playbook with success.....provided we catch the ball.

Going in, we should all be confident the defense and special teams are in good hands. It's going to take a combination of Kromer getting the OL right, providing blocking schemes for the run AND passing games and McVay, LaFleur and Olsen instructing Goff on avoiding sacks. I'm confident they are all capable of turning the offense around. Hell, one improvement would be to take the car out of park and put it in drive....that's more than the previous offense coaches could accomplish.

 

[tempests]

Gurley's conditioning has never been an issue or a concern. He lost weight last year because he worked out too much.

"Gurley has been so engrossed in his first full offseason program Rams coach Jeff Fisher has almost had to tell him to dial it back.

“He’s not missed a day and he’s running extra after practice," Fisher said. "He’s doing everything to the point where you almost say, ‘Let’s back down a little bit.’ He’s had an impressive offseason.”

One of the unintended consequences of Gurley's voracious appetite for offseason workouts (even over hamburgers) -- he trained at EXOS performance center in Los Angeles -- was a fairly dramatic weight loss of about 10 to 15 pounds. Gurley was listed at 231 pounds a year ago, which would put him in the 216- to 221-pound range right now."

-http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-r...own-todd-gurley-enjoying-california-lifestyle

So he did some commercials, big deal. The 1960s, 70s, 80s LA Rams loved to pose for the cameras too, in case we forgot.

 

[LARAMSinFeb.]

We really have turned it up with new coaching staff. Should make a huge difference in the very near future. I know Callahan (Redskins' OL coach) had a big hand in designing their run game. Pass pro improved over night after they hired him.

 

[Merlin]

Wrt the run game if you look at McVay's production in Washington that was probably the most widely heard knock on him, as the Skins finished 21st in rushing yards per game at 106.0, which isn't too good. But looking at the stats they were actually very efficient with 4.5 yards per carry, which tied them for 7th in the league.

Their biggest issue was in truth their terrible red zone efficiency, where only 45.9% of their red zone trips resulted in TDs. That placed them 30th in the league and below the Rams believe it or not. One interesting thing here is that the Skins converted 58.49% in 2015 which was good for a solid ranking of 11th in the league.

Looking at Cousins' production inside the 20 yard line, he completed a terrible 45.78% of his passes. For reference purposes Keenum was 39.02%, Goff was 43.75%, while Brady was the benchmark at 67.19%. Looking one year prior Cousins had fantastic red zone production with a 63.29% completion rate (better than Brady that year) which had him in elite range, and he was even better inside the 10.

I'm not a Skins fan so not sure why he had that dropoff, as it is significant. I'd be interested to hear what McVay thought about the reasons for it, but in the end it probably demonstrates that the scheme wasn't the issue and the problems were likely on the execution side.

Kromer's hire does loom large in all this I think. He does have a very nice resume, but then again so did Callahan, who was under McVay in Washington. In the end I will observe one thing, and that is McVay has not had a RB of Gurley's caliber in his offense. Now the naysayers will question whether TG is any good, and to each his own. But I think what Gurley has coming in this particular offense is a scheme that ties everything together very well, with good balance that will provide for him running into favorable looks. His chances of big success are probably linked to the OL being able to limit penetration, and if they can do that to great extent and give him a seam I think the big gains will be there.

 

[Florida_Ram]

Gurley's conditioning has never been an issue or a concern. He lost weight last year because he worked out too much.

"Gurley has been so engrossed in his first full offseason program Rams coach Jeff Fisher has almost had to tell him to dial it back.

“He’s not missed a day and he’s running extra after practice," Fisher said. "He’s doing everything to the point where you almost say, ‘Let’s back down a little bit.’ He’s had an impressive offseason.”

One of the unintended consequences of Gurley's voracious appetite for offseason workouts (even over hamburgers) -- he trained at EXOS performance center in Los Angeles -- was a fairly dramatic weight loss of about 10 to 15 pounds. Gurley was listed at 231 pounds a year ago, which would put him in the 216- to 221-pound range right now."

-http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-r...own-todd-gurley-enjoying-california-lifestyle

So he did some commercials, big deal. The 1960s, 70s, 80s LA Rams loved to pose for the cameras too, in case we forgot.

Those were Fisher's words not Gurley's. I don't buy in with the comments that he worked out too much and just magically dropped that much weight. Weight loss was never an issue for him at Georgia and there is no proof from Gurley's mouth that he worked out so much that he couldn't retain his weight mass.

Todd Gurley lost 10-15 pounds, isn’t sure where they went

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 3, 2016, 3:33 PM EDT

Getty Images
Most people have to work hard to lose 10 to 15 pounds. Rams running back Todd Gurley is not like most people.

Gurley says when he weighed in at the Rams’ Organized Team Activities, he discovered that he had lost about 10 to 15 pounds. That wasn’t a specific goal but wasn’t unwelcome either.

“I don’t know what happened this offseason,” Gurley said. “I was just losing weight. It’s probably just having the first offseason not doing anything for about a month or two. I feel fine how I am so I’m not going to add weight.” I feel fine how I am so I’m not going to add weight.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-lost-10-15-pounds-isnt-sure-where-they-went/

 

[Soul Surfer]

"I feel fine how I am so I’m not going to add weight.”

"I feel fine how I am so I’m not going to add weight"

Sounds like a bunch of double speak to me.

 

[LesBaker]

Listen...defenses are going to sleep on #30 and everyone else early this season and continue to send the farm after Goff.

"It's gonna be beautiful man....beautiful!!!"
View attachment 19575

If they do that they will be making adjustments at halftime if Gurley, the OL and Austin make them pay.

Of course that's assuming that McVay calls it that way.

 

[Riverumbbq]

I had the impression that Todd just wasn't very happy during and after the 2016 season. He looked to me like a guy ready to scream it to the rafters while also needing to keep his mouth shut and not alienate team-mates. He looked depressed. Although very careful and respectful with his words, his eyes and face were telling a different story imo. We may never know if it was disappointment in his OL, WR's or coaching staff, or all of the above, ... or rather having to endure being on a bad team following a successful college career, maybe he just missed home & moms cooking more than most kids his age. Or maybe yet that i'm just a bad read for his expressions. Still, he seemed to wear his feelings on his sleeve, and I wondered whether the whole L.A. experience was getting to him. You would think that Gurley and even the rookie Goff expressed some concerns facing the team once McVay took the reins, and perhaps being closer in age made it easier for them to open up to him, giving up details on who was or wasn't completely on-board character wise or physically capable to get the job done. Sure enough, with some help from free agency, it didn't take long to clean house, perhaps one of the bigger surprises was how the OL was left intact, that they felt they could be worked with in a more hands on approach with proper coaching. Fisher was known to be a player friendly coach, but you can start losing people if you're consistently losing with little to no improvement or leadership in sight. Maybe i'm reading too much into this while the Kool-ade has me believing McVay and staff are going to breath new life into this organization, it may just be a 12 step program and we're only mid-way thru step 1, but I like what i'm seeing, even if we are weeks out from our first camp with the new staff. jmo.