Todd Gurley Faces Career-Defining Season for Falcons
Atlanta Falcons running back Todd Gurley, a former MVP, is in danger of becoming defined by his injury record.
His injuries, and the resulting chatter, dominated his final days with the Los Angeles Rams. After giving opposition defences nightmares in 2017, his participation was limited throughout 2018 and 2019.
As a result, the Rams decided that they couldn’t rely on Todd Gurley, and let him go this offseason. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, his new team were not able to fully assess the 26-year-old medically.
As a result, Falcons personnel have the same question that the Rams did: can we rely on Gurley?
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Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter says that they will have to wait and see when they finally get to work with him.
“The main question is that no one seems to know is what’s his health status?” Dirk Koetter said.
“What’s his workload? He averaged about 17 touches a game last year, which is about a little bit lower than he had been when he was All-Pro. We’re just gonna have to find that out once we get here and get him working. Get him up and running.”
Gurley’s knee injury history has been common knowledge since before the 2015 Draft, when he was picked 10th overall. The Falcons have protected both themselves and Gurley with his one year, $5.5 million contract.
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The good news is that Atlanta plays a similar offensive game to the Rams.If Gurley is fit, he should find it easy to start performing straight away.
“Really fortunate for us that he’s coming from a real similar offensive system terminology wise,” Koetter said.Â
“The run game is very similar conceptually to what they were doing in L.A. I know from talking to Todd that he’s fired up to be coming back to Georgia. He can do everything. He’s an excellent runner, he’s good in the pass game, he can protect.”