Los Angeles Rams: Todd Gurley extension a leap of faith

The Los Angeles Rams signed running back Todd Gurley to a four-year extension and, though he’s immensely talented, that’s a leap of faith.

Big moves have been the story of the Los Angeles Rams all offseason. Trading for cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters helped bolster the Wade Phillips led defense. So too did the signing of Ndamukong Suh following his release by the Dolphins. The offense wasn’t left out either as they also pulled off another trade that landed them wide receiver Brandin Cooks, who they later extended with a hefty deal.

Now the Rams have handed out another large contract extension, one that was actually less surprising than Cooks’ though. Los Angeles locked up running back and 2017 MVP candidate Todd Gurley to a four-year, $60 million extension. The former Georgia Bulldog will now be a Ram likely until the 2023 season with this new deal that contains $45 million in guaranteed money, per NFL.com.

Based off of the production of Gurley in his lone season under head coach Sean McVay, it’s not difficult to see why the Rams were eager to extend the talented running back. In 15 games last season (he rested in Week 17), Gurley carried the ball 279 times for 1,305 yards and 13 touchdowns while also amassing 64 receptions for 788 yards and an additional six scores. He was truly a force to be reckoned with.

Gurley’s exceptional success last season, however, made many people forget about how dismal his 2016 campaign actually was. In his second year, the 6-1, 227-pound rusher took 278 carries for just 885 yards and six touchdowns, averaging a meager 3.2 yards per carry on the year.

The reasons for Gurley’s stark turnaround in production and getting back to his Rookie of the Year form from 2015 aren’t hard to see. The Rams invested in their offensive line last offseason and the results were evident. What’s more, McVay’s arrival caused the offense as a whole to take a massive step forward in terms of what they were able to consistently produce.

There have been some that have brought up Gurley’s injury concerns as he suffered brutal knee injuries in college. To me, those are ultimately overblown as he’s been healthy throughout his time in the NFL. Having said that, the Rams committing so heavily to Gurley is still somewhat of a leap of faith on the part of the organization.

As much belief as the front office clearly has in this roster and in McVay, you can’t discount the fact that one of the three seasons that Gurley has been in the league, he was terrible. Yes, there were mitigating circumstances that “helped” cause that (hello, Jeff Fisher). However, it’s not something that you can just completely look past.

This isn’t to say that the Rams shouldn’t have made the deal. When you have a player that can produce at an MVP-caliber level, you need to secure him as part of your future. And this is clearly a team in win-now mode with the moves they’ve made this offseason, which Gurley will be a huge part of. At the same time though, don’t think that this was as easy of a decision to make as it might seem with 2017-colored glasses on. As with every big-money deal in the NFL, there is risk involved. But you have to take risks to get big rewards, as they say.