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Going into the 2016 season, Los Angeles Rams RB Todd Gurley was the face of the Rams.
TV commercials. Billboards.
The expectations were huge. Our own Sean Wilkinson offered the following in his roster preview series’ installment on JTG:
After two weeks, Gurley is 25th in the NFL in rushing yards (98), 39th in yards per carry (2.72) and has yet to score a touchdown. He’s averaging less than a yard before first contact with defenders, one of the worst rates in the NFL.
If you take his first two games from 2016 and put them with his final eight games last year, the numbers just look very...unremarkable.
In those ten games, he’s averaged 62.9 yards per game on 17.1 carries per. That’s 3.68 yards per carry. Seven touchdowns. One game over 100 yards. One game over 90 yards. Just three games over 70 yards...
It’s not great.
That’s Rams G Rodger Saffold on the inability to get sufficient production out of the running game thus far. And he’s not wrong about any of it.
The question is...why hasn’t it happened? Saffold’s entire comment is couched in a conditional future tense. That they “have to” and “can do” and that the coaches “are starting to do.”
It’s Week 3. That’s kind of the thing that should be expected by Week 1.
The Rams took Todd Gurley with the 10th pick of the 2015 NFL Draft. They went on to have the worst offense in the NFL last year.
At what point should Rams fans be concerned that for all his individual talents, the offense as a whole continues to struggle and it might be burying Gurley in the process?