By:
Cameron DaSilva |
https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2019/03/01/nfl-rams-todd-gurley-knee-contract-extension/
Coming off a season in which Todd Gurley won Offensive Player of the Year, finished second in MVP voting and led the league in both total yards and touchdowns, the Los Angeles Rams felt the time was right to lock up their All-Pro running back.
Last July, they gave him a big check worth $57.5 million for four years, including $45 million in guaranteed money. It made Gurley the richest running back in the league and locked him up through 2023.
On the surface, it was easy to see why the Rams wanted to sign him long term. He was the best back in football and fit perfectly in Sean McVay’s offense as a runner and receiver. With 2,093 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2017, how could Los Angeles
not ink him to a lucrative extension?
The answer is simple: The Rams could’ve waited a year, or even two.
Gurley was under contract through 2018 with the $9.63 million fifth-year option available in 2019. Realistically, the Rams could’ve waited until this offseason to get a deal done, knowing he was already under contract in 2019. They even had the option to wait until 2020, knowing they’d have the franchise tag in their back pocket at around $12 million (depending on potential contracts for Ezekiel Elliott and Le’Veon Bell).
Instead, the Rams jumped at the opportunity to sign Gurley last offseason before his price increased with the salary cap going up. Unfortunately, they now find themselves in a precarious situation.
At the NFL combine this week, Les Snead and McVay both talked at length about Gurley’s knee injury. They both said it was more about wear and tear and soreness than anything, rather than a new injury that popped up in Week 15. Having torn his ACL once already, there seems to be some concern about how Gurley’s knee will hold up in the future.
McVay told CBS Sports that the Rams have been monitoring Gurley’s surgically repaired knee every year since he was drafted in 2015 and that will continue this offseason.
“We’ve always had the approach with him even going back to when we drafted him before I was here, and that’s really where we’re at,” McVay said. “There’s been a plan in place specific to monitoring that knee every single offseason for him and having a plan to make sure that we’re putting him in a position to sustain that workload. This season will be no different.”
That’s not the concerning part. It’s perfectly reasonable for a team to consistently check up on a player who’s undergone surgery on a specific part of his body. What’s troubling is the way Snead talked about limiting Gurley’s workload.
It’s been about seven months since the Rams signed him to an extension and they’re already worried about limiting his touches so he doesn’t get worn out? This might sound harsh, but running backs aren’t meant to be maintained like a Bentley. They’re more like a daily driver – a car that gets you to and from work until it hits 350,000 miles.
Running backs typically get driven into the ground while on their rookie deals and replaced by someone younger and cheaper with less wear on the tires – just as the Steelers tried to do with Bell. It’s the reality of the position, and it’s why running back contracts typically lag behind other positions.
(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Instead of pushing Gurley to the limit for five years before his contract expired, the Rams now have to worry about keeping him “fresher,” as Snead put it, for all 16 games and for seasons down the road. In other words, they can’t give him 25 touches a game because he’s going to get worn down like he did in 2018.
Snead compared Gurley’s situation to a marathon runner, having received 150 more touches than any other player since 2015.
“I do think with Todd and his career, it happens with a lot of young guys,”
Snead said. “All of a sudden, they wake up – it’s like a marathon runner. If you run a lot of marathons, all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you’re a little sorer than you were the day before, so recovery, things like that have to come into it, but it’s something we want to be intentional about and proactive.”
Gurley has five years left on his contract with a potential “out” not coming until 2022 when the Rams can realistically cut him. Yet, they’re already considering limiting his workload in fear of him wearing down? Yikes.
The Rams didn’t do much to keep Gurley fresh in 2018 aside from sitting him for the final two games of the season and we all saw how that worked out in the postseason. We still haven’t stopped talking about his lack of involvement on offense.
It’s entirely possible Gurley will share touches again in 2019 the way he did with C.J. Anderson. Snead has already brought up the possibility of a “Batman and Robin combination.”
“Obviously, senior year, junior year at Georgia, he did the ACL,” Snead said. “So over that time, there’s an element of wear and tear and I think we have to determine, are we going to give him the amount of load he’s had in the past? Or are we going to lessen that load to, let’s say, keep him fresher for the season and for seasons beyond? And then if you go that route, you have to have a good, let’s call it, Batman and Robin combination. We’re in the process of figuring that out.”
So now the guy you’re paying $14.4 million per year is going share the backfield? That’s a tough pill to swallow.
This knee situation might wind up being nothing. Gurley could very well go on to dominate for the next five years, leading the Rams to three Super Bowls. He could also wear down in the next two years and become a shell of himself because of the heavy workload he’s gotten in the NFL.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but given the timing of his contract, it’s safe to say the Rams would’ve been better off waiting a year or two before deciding what to do long term.
