Image Credit: (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports)
Written by: Nicholas Mullick Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mullick-354076184/
Twitter: @nicholasmullick
Welcome to another article in my writing series that I call The Stunning Cut. This is a series where I look at cuts in the preseason or in the regular season that stunned many when the news was released. For this one, I decided to do a player who was once one of the faces of the St.Louis/Los Angeles Rams and the NFL at the running back position. His name is, of course, Todd Gurley. He was one of the main pieces of that Rams team, but the news of the Rams cutting ties with Gurley was absolutely shocking when revealed.
Who is Todd Gurley?
Todd Gurley came into the NCAA as a 4-star recruit. There were many universities that wanted to recruit him to their teams and he decided to choose Georgia. He performed very well for Georgia and was building himself to easily be a 1st round selection in the NFL Draft. He did suffer a Torn ACL in his junior year, but with how well he performed through his college career, there was no chance he would not be a 1st round pick. The 2015 NFL Draft came and he was selected by the St. Louis Rams 10th overall.
The pick immediately panned out as Gurley rushed for 1,106 yards and 10 running touchdowns which is a great start, but the team did not make the playoffs while playing in 13 games. The Next season was not great when the Rams moved to Los Angeles. Gurley ran for 885 rushing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns which was a step down. Once the Rams fired Jeff Fisher and hired Sean McVay the team was coached a lot better. In 2017 and 2018 Gurley had career highs and he was unstoppable.
In 2018 he was a big reason why the Rams performed in Superbowl 53. It's too bad that they did not get in that Super Bowl properly after that disgraceful NFC Championship game against the Saints where the refs robbed the Saints. Now I have never been the type of guy that says games are rigged in the NFL, but I made an exception once that game ended and I never forgave the NFL for that game. I was so mad that I didn’t even watch Super Bowl 53 live and I taped it while I legit wrote a paper for school. I am going to move on as just talking about it makes me angry and I am not even a Saints fan. Going back to Super Bowl 53 while I watched the taped version of that game, Gurley was barely used at all and many questioned if he was healthy.
The Day He Got Cut
Todd Gurley's K\knee issue was a growing problem for the team, but I thought that the Rams were managing him well. But from out of nowhere the Rams decide to release Todd Gurley. This is absolutely surprising as he signed a 4 year 57.5 million dollar contract and was still producing with the Rams. Yes, he did not have a 1,000-yard season in 2019, but he did well with 857 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. To add to it was that Gurley was in his prime, as at the time Gurley was 25 years old. It amazed me that the Rams would just let a player like Todd Gurley go who had plenty more football left in him.
The Aftermath of Getting Cut
Now when Gurley got cut he signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons. He actually had a pretty good season. Despite running for 678 yards, he had 9 rushing touchdowns and was a strong part of that offense. It is a shame that Atlanta waited too long to finally fire Dan Quinn as the head coach. Atlanta did not make the playoffs and the team decided to not resign Gurley as they were planning to start their rebuild by getting through a year of awful contracts they sign.
Ever since Todd Gurley left Atlanta, he has not even signed with another team. His knee injury must be as bad as many stated as not a team will touch him. It is stunning how he went from being the face of the NFL to out of the league. I doubt Todd Gurley will ever return to the NFL ever again, but out of football, he is doing well. In fact, he is also a part-owner of the Fan Controlled Football League’s team called Beasts. I wish Todd Gurley well as he was one of the most talented runningbacks I ever saw play. It is a shame that he had that arthritic knee as I am sure if he didn’t he would still be playing today.