The Los Angeles Rams are in a pickle heading into the 2020 NFL season. After Todd Gurley‘s historic season in 2018, the reality of a chronic knee injury has set in for both the team and the player.
Signs of Gurley’s sudden decline showed at the end of the Rams’ 2018 season. The star running back missed two games with a knee injury at the end of the regular season but came back for the playoffs, not quite looking like his usual self.
The injury turned out to be arthritis in his left knee and the Rams allowed him to follow his own practice regimen away from the team this past offseason. Even once the season began, it was clear that head coach Sean McVay was not going to take any chances of injuring his star player further.
Without Gurley’s full availability, the Rams offense struggled in 2019. Now that the season is over and L.A. missed the playoffs entirely, it is time to make some decisions about Gurley and his future with the team. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network , the Rams will be considering severing ties from Gurley completely as McVay is going to soon sit down with him to discuss his future:
“I’m not sure where the rumblings would come from, but the Rams do have a decision on Todd Gurley and from my understanding, with everything that happened this season, so much of the focus on Gurley, whether he was used properly, whether he was not, his knee, all of those things really need to be kind of fleshed out and from what I’m told, what the Rams want to do and what coach Sean McVay specifically wants to do is sit down with Gurley before any decision was made. So that’s probably going to happen before they decide how are they going to proceed with someone who has been, at times, the best running back in the NFL. Obviously this is not a simple decision. Cutting him just to save cash would be something, that while theoretically possible cap-wise, would be extremely difficult. More than $10 million in a salary cap hit just for releasing him and if they did it before June 1, it would be astronomical. Trading him would be more possible. Obviously they would still be stuck with some of the cap hit, but would alleviate some of the cash issues. Either way, whatever decision they make on Todd Gurley, would probably have to be before the middle of March, that’s when more than a $7 million roster bonus is due for him. A very expensive decision they have, but considering what he played through, how much pain in the knee and how much of a focus has been on him, you can certainly understand why at least all options are on the table here.”
Gurley signed his big extension before the 2018 season and it appears the Rams are already having buyers remorse. He rushed for a career-low 857 yards despite playing 15 games in 2019, averaging just 3.8 yards per carry.
He showed signs of being his old self in the latter half of the season, but if the Rams are not confident that he can get fully back to being that, then look for them to try and trade him this offseason considering they have capable backups in Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson.
The post Rams Rumors: Sean McVay To Sit Down With Todd Gurley To Discuss Future appeared first on Rams Nation.