The Todd Gurley Thread - Currently FA

[hoos89]

He's good enough to do well with 15 touches/game; the bigger issue is whether Brown will get the lion's share of touches inside the 10.

[ArrylT]

Gurley still equalled or out-touched

Saquon Barkley
James Conner
Ezekiel Elliott
Aaron Jones
Miles Sanders
David Montgomery

and is currently 6th overall in rushing yardage (excluding MNF games), 3 yards away from a 100 yard performance. While on the road on the East coast when typically West Coast teams perform poorly at the start of games (1pm ET = 10am PT). While playing a team with typically a good defence (not elite).

Should this be something to keep and eye on and monitor - yes. Is this a major cause of concern (for me)? Not yet.

"Since 2002, Pacific and Mountain time zone teams have been outscored 202-56 in the first half of all 1 p.m. ET playoff games, which means they've almost always got off to a rough start. However, things generally change in the second half, with the Western team outscoring its opponents 189-87."

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/west ... off-times/

I am heavily invested in Gurley and hence am trying to be very optimistic, but this is the spinniest spin in spinnville.

The dude was being out touched and out gained by Malcolm Brown through 3 and a half quarters and got none of the goaline work, and basically no looks in the passing game. It may all blow over but to say it's not a major concern is sticking your head in the sand.

Then I guess your definition of spin and mine differentiate.

The very first game Gurley played in this year period and he gets 100 all purpose yards & I am putting a spin on it? I could see it if he went 25-40 and looked awful the whole game.

What this looks like is that Gurley had a rough start, rusty from having not having had any real game action, and being on the opposite coast, made some mistakes. Got benched briefly to get him focused while the Rams had a good lead, and then came back and played a lot better. The Panthers were top 10 last year against RBs. And their D perhaps got better over the off-season, and Gurley still had a solid (not exciting or great) outing.

To me that is context, not spin. Spin is putting a positive light on a negative result, or a negative light on a positive result. Being positive about a positive outcome after an off-season of this volume of speculation and worry by many? Not really spin in my book. How many people went into Week I and expected Gurley to come out and go 25-190-2? My guess is that that is what it would have taken for most naysayers to not say anything.

Personally I do my best to not stress or overreact to 1 game samples. Especially samples which are in line with other players results with similar volume. Not to mention, I bet you could find games from previous years where Gurley ceded a significant share of touches to other backs. For example it looks like there are 4 games from 2017 where Malcolm Brown earned double digit carries.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elog/2017/

If there had not been an entire off-season of "Is Gurley a bust/not healthy" there likely would not even be this talk. There might be some talk about Brown maybe being a TD vulture. Gallman scored a TD today, so did some guy named Armah - but I doubt that CMC or Barkley owners are frantic with worry.

I am not even saying dont pick up/acquire Brown - in fact I am a proponent of hancuffing backs in strong offenses - so Gurley owners SHOULD own Brown. Nonetheless this game has not changed my position on Gurley negatively.

If other owners wish to worry now that is their choice. I rather wait & see. In re-draft I can see the need to react immediately, but this is dynasty & Gurley did enough today (imho) tape wise, production wise & has a strong enough contract to suggest that waiting a few more games is prudent before deciding that the sky is falling, or even looking like it might fall.

Of course if we get to Week V and Brown is constantly getting the TDs & Gurley is only getting 15 carries & little to no receptions, definitely a different story. My guess is though, the Rams will review his tape from this week and feel confident to dial up more Gurley touches next week.

[ArrylT]

He's good enough to do well with 15 touches/game; the bigger issue is whether Brown will get the lion's share of touches in side the 10.

That is indeed something to keep an eye on, and if a consistent trend appears, then it is time to worry.

[Cherokee]

100 all purpose yards with 1 leg. Impressive.

Should it have been 157 all purpose yards and 2 TDS?

[Cherokee]

He's good enough to do well with 15 touches/game; the bigger issue is whether Brown will get the lion's share of touches inside the 10.

Exactly the issue in question. We could see Brown with half of the TDs Gurley had last year.

[Dynasty DeLorean]

100 all purpose yards with 1 leg. Impressive.

Should it have been 157 all purpose yards and 2 TDS?

Well, if he had 2 legs naturally you'd just double the output.

[ArrylT]

100 all purpose yards with 1 leg. Impressive.

Should it have been 157 all purpose yards and 2 TDS?

Well, if he had 2 legs naturally you'd just double the output.

Just imagine if he had the nickname 'Tripod'.

[JoshGordonsDealer]

Roughly the same division of work this week. Gurley looked decent this week, got the TD, more involved in the passing game.

Owners will just have to get used to Brown taking up 1/4 drives or so. Gurley won’t be a 30 PPG guy, but he’s been solid two weeks in a row now, no signs of injury.

[wingnutty]

I guess as a plus we should be able to expect him to last all year and hopefully many more. I feel like his floor is going to be consistantly 15 pts with a ceiling of like 20-30 but not to expect 30+ weeks.

[Vcize]

Got redzone work this week which was nice.

Perhaps just as concerning is that this doesn't look like the Rams offense from the first half of last year anymore. It's been 11 games of "meh" now offensively, so 65% of the touches probably doesn't mean 65% of the production he was getting before.

[JoshGordonsDealer]

Got redzone work this week which was nice.

Perhaps just as concerning is that this doesn't look like the Rams offense from the first half of last year anymore. It's been 11 games of "meh" now offensively, so 65% of the touches probably doesn't mean 65% of the production he was getting before.

He didn’t get the red zone work. He and Brown were exclusive on the drives that they played. So, he got red zone work on his drives and didn’t get it on Brown’s drives.

[hoos89]

Yeah it seems like they're just going to give Brown ~2 drives per game. It just happened that the goal line carries came on Brown's drives last week.

[FantasyFreak]

Yeah it seems like they're just going to give Brown ~2 drives per game. It just happened that the goal line carries came on Brown's drives last week.

Yep.

[Vcize]

Yeah it seems like they're just going to give Brown ~2 drives per game. It just happened that the goal line carries came on Brown's drives last week.

That's distinctly not true regarding last week. Only one of the 3 drives where Gurley was not used in the redzone came on a "Malcolm" drive. Another one was when they started inside the 10 and Brown had just had the previous drive (he never had consecutive drives other than the one where they started inside the 5), and on the 3rd Gurley was pulled for Henderson inside the 10.

So him at least staying in on his drives this week when they got into the redzone was an improvement. Though hardly a major win considering where he was at this time last year.

[lukkynumber13]

Got redzone work this week which was nice.

Perhaps just as concerning is that this doesn't look like the Rams offense from the first half of last year anymore. It's been 11 games of "meh" now offensively, so 65% of the touches probably doesn't mean 65% of the production he was getting before.

Exactly, spot on.

I was expected him to only get 15-18 touches per game, but on a much more high-powered offense than the one that finished last year and started this year. Hopefully it's just Kupp being 100% that is needed.