[AvengerRam]

I know... I know...

NOT ANOTHER GURLEY THREAD!

Bear with me, though... there's a method to my madness.

There have been countless posts by many people here about Todd Gurley's condition and prospects for this upcoming season. I think its fair to say its been talked to death.

All I'm asking for here is a single post with your best prediction/guess/gut feeling (call it what you will) regarding how Gurley will fare this year. I'm not doing a poll, as I do not wish to limit people to a finite number of responses.

I ask only one thing... don't be this guy:

[AvengerRam]

Here is mine:

I believe Todd Gurley, notwithstanding the fact that he undoubtedly has suffered (and could again suffer) symptoms related to his ACL repair (inflammation, arthritis, whatever word you want to use for it), is still "in his prime," as opposed to being "on the downside" of his career. Thus, while I do think the Rams will try to reduce his workload, I believe he'll be extremely productive. I'm expecting him to have 1,100+ yards rushing, 1,600+ yards from scrimmage, a ypc of 4.7 or better, and 16+ TDs.

[Elvis]

The only sensible answer is "i don't know," but since that's not the point of this thread i'm gonna take the Rams at their word when they say they're going to manage his workload and we'll see Gurley get somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of his normal snaps in 2019...

[MBRamFan]

He will perform better than the critics believe. I'm expecting 1,000+ yards rushing, 1,500+ yards from scrimmage, a ypc of 4.2 or better, and 12+ TDs.

[Hacksaw]

1,100+ yds on fewer carries than his last 2 year average.
350 yds recieving .
He'll (more than before) rest in games that are in hand and once the division is won (if).
We wont really notice a difference.

[snackdaddy]

I think we will see a reduced overall workload but nothing drastic. Some games he'll be used sparingly depending on what McVay sees. Others he'll be the work horse. The opponent that week will have a lot to do with how much they game plan with him.

220 carries
1100 yards
12 rushing TD's

55 receptions
500 yards
5 receiving TD's.

Gurley did mention that running routes and catching passes is easier on the body than running the ball. Its possible we won't see a much of a reduction in targets.

[/zn/]

I say he does well. You can run with an arthritic knee (at least for a few years). To repeat this again ad nauseum: we saw Faulk do it. The thing is managing it and taking account of it, and doing things like training to minimize it. The thing to avoid is the kind of pain/swelling flare-up he had in December, but even if that happens, you can come back from that after some rest.

So that's my vote. Having an arthritic knee does NOT mean he's done. Conversely, the fact that he's not done (and will likely do well) does NOT mean he does not have an arthritic knee.

[Rams1PlateSince1976]

Thread Winner Here: Super Bowl ring for Gurley in the 2019 campaign.

[aeneas1]

interesting... despite the dire reports that have flooded in since january, despite the "arthritis" claims, and despite the claims that he was injured throughout the postseason and had so much pain/inflammation in his knee that he was forced to miss two games, no one in this thread (so far) is predicting that at some point in 2019 he'll be lost for the season, or any portion of the season?

I think we will see a reduced overall workload but nothing drastic. Some games he'll be used sparingly depending on what McVay sees. Others he'll be the work horse.

like a lot of stuff that's been reported about gurley, it seems that more than a few "reporters" have added their own spin to the "workload" thing, despite what the rams have said - mcvay:

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“I think Todd has shown that he is capable of carrying the workload. We have a lot of confidence in (RB) Malcolm (Brown). For us, you want to be smart about that, but I think, like we talked about the other day, Todd is a guy that’s been a focal point of this offense. He’s going to continue to be. Really, what resulted in (a two-back approach at the end of last year), was because (Gurley) was forced to miss some games at the end of the year and we wanted to be smart about managing that load. Todd has shown that he can handle that. How we navigate through a season, it’s hard to say, but we anticipate like we said the other day, (Gurley) being the focal point of our offense."

“As far as managing the workload, those are things that we talk about with Todd and as you continue to get educated on, is that something that we should do for the long haul or something that is or isn’t going to affect Todd most importantly and how does that affect our team,” McVay said.

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anyway, what gurley's future "workload" will look like has been discussed a lot, but what exactly does "workload" even mean? are we talking ota workload, practice workload but game workload not so much? are we talking about snaps, touches, or both? assuming the latter, snaps and touches, what would a reduced "workload" look like?

here's a look at last year's top 20 backs:

check out michel, he averaged a whopping 34 (58%) fewer snaps per game than gurley but, despite this huge difference in snaps, he only averaged 2 fewer rush attempts and 6 fewer touches per game than gurley... so does that qualify as a 50%+ reduction in workload?

[aeneas1]

to answer the op question, i think gurley will have another great year, assuming he's not too busy always thinking about how he's going to spend his guaranteed and beyond meat money!