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Saguaro
I found Gurley's 2nd season performance puzzling. It just didn't match what we first saw in him in 2015. So I didn't know what to think.
Always been a big Aaron Donald fan, but as the holdout wore on, that was tested.
I'm sure glad they're Rams right now. And I want it to continue.
It takes a big man to admit it when he's wrong.
I think a lot of what happened to Gurley last year was Gurley.
At one point, and we have a direct quote somewhere for this, he openly said he didn't get around to working out for "1 or 2 months" and was surprised at OTAs to find he had lost weight. Well. A guy who works out a lot is never surprised by his weight. I think he pretty much took the 2016 off-season off.
Plus of course installing a new offense during a move put the whole team out of sync. The last time I saw something like that in the early games was in 2011 when McDaniels tried installing a new offense without an offseason (that was the lockout year).
So I don't think he had an optimal grasp of the offense early in 2016 either.
He did not look the same. He did not have the same energy, drive, explosion, strength...he wasn't the same back in 2016 that he was in 2015.
He DID make a point of working hard this last off-season and IMO just plain looks like a different back. Plus Whitworth makes a difference, as does Sullivan, as does Saffold playing between those 2, as does Kromer, as does LaFleur (who learned from Atlanta's prolific running game).
So a lot of things got better but I think one of them was Gurley himself.
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