Quote
RamBill
Report: Former Rams coaches blame Gurley for his 2016 strugglesByAlex Kolodziej
[
www.fanragsports.com]
Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley took a massive step back from his outstanding rookie campaign this past season, and the former coaching staff says it stems from Gurley himself.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole, the coaching staff said, “It’s the same [offense] he was in as a rookie. You tell me the difference.”
There’re a lot of factors to point at from the common fan’s view. One can blame the Rams’ poor offensive line and its inability to pave holes for Gurley to run through (cc: Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas Cowboys and the complete opposite). There was also a blip in the passing game and quarterback swaps that hindered any offensive chemistry, and more so the inefficiency of being able to run without a complementary passing game only hampered Gurley’s production.
Apparently there’s little room for excuses here.
Cole noted that Gurley “missed most of the team’s offseason program to take part in off-field activities, such as hanging out with rapper Jay-Z, whose agency represents Gurley.”
The second-year back out of Georgia played in only 13 games in 2015 and managed to surpass the 1,000-yard mark thanks to 4.8 yards per carry, and 10 touchdowns to go along with it. This past season, he appeared in all 16 and fell shy of 1,000 as he compiled 885 yards on 278 attempts (3.2 yards per rush) with four fewer touchdowns.
2016 was a truly dismal season for the Rams, who won only four games. With change aplenty amid the coaching staff, the new faces can only hope there’s change in their’s running back’s game come 2017.
So much went wrong in 2016. A lot of things, and they all compounded one another.
One of those things was Gurley.
And the stories of him not staying on top of things in the off-season are not new.
He himself admitted as much at one point this off-season when he stated that he may have taken too much time to get working last off-season.
Well...that may have been putting it mildly.
BTW recognizing that Gurley caused his own problems last year takes nothing away from anything else and it isn't an effort to put it all on him. There were other problems too. In fact as I keep saying, it simply does not reduce to one or 2 things.
.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2017 08:19AM by zn.
