WANTED & UNWANTED » Rams intend on taking a running back in the d

Rams running back Todd Gurley had been elected a team captain in 2016 Josh Reynolds Jersey , 2017, and 2018. The Rams did not name Gurley a team captain for 2019.“We’ve got a bunch of great leaders,” coach Sean McVay told reporters on Thursday. “He definitely got recognized by his peers as somebody that was right up there with those guys. We let the players select that and those were the six that they ended up voting on, but Todd’s been a great leader. The fact that you may or may not be represented as a captain officially, we’ve got guys that we expect them to carry themselves accordingly. Todd is certainly somebody that influences and affects a locker room in a positive way and I know he’s looked at as a leader on this team.”McVay also was asked whether he had spoken to Gurley about the development.“We talk about it,” McVay said. “It’s one of those things where I think he knows he has the respect of his teammates. When you look at it, it’s nothing really against Todd, it continues to be a good reflection of those other guys. It’s one of those deals where he’s still looked at as a leader. He was right up there with the guys selected as the captains John Johnson Jersey , in terms of he very easily was a couple of votes away from being one as well.”But it’s not as if some other offensive leader got more votes than Gurley; the Rams specifically opted to name two offensive captains this year (tackle Andrew Whitworth and quarterback Jared Goff) after having three in 2018 (Whitworth, Goff, and Gurley). So, at a minimum, it’s curious that the Rams have one fewer offensive captain than they had a year ago, and that the guy who was left out is Gurley.Gurley, based on the transcript circulated by the team, wasn’t asked about his captaincy snub. He was Gerald Everett Jersey , however, asked (again) about his knee. He said (again) that it’s fine and (again) that he’ll be the guy he’s always been.That may be the case, but most people who have been paying attention to the situation believe there’s a fundamental difference in Gurley’s overall ability to perform at the same level that he did, and it’s hard not to wonder whether the players took that into account when voting on team captains. After Gurley suffered from a "wear and tear" issue late last year, it sounds like McVay is committing to more of both in 2019."That was NFL Network’s Steve Wyche nearly two months ago on the injury Los Angeles Rams RB Just Todd Gurley was suffering from at the end of the regular season.The saga of Gurley’s knee has taken plenty of twists and turns since Super Bowl LIII, the latest coming yesterday when Rams HC McVay and Gurley, among other Rams, addressed convened media as the Rams began their official offseason program.Given Gurley’s jobshare in the postseason with RB C.J. Anderson who wasn’t even on the team until Week 16 John Kelly Jersey , it was fair to anticipate a reduced role for Gurley in 2019. Whatever the “wear and tear” issue which might or might not have been related to the arthritis he’s supposedly suffering from, continuing to give Gurley as many touches seemed perhaps unlikely.Welp:(4:55 mark for the relevant question)It’s an interesting answer and one that matches what McVay said recently on the Rich Eisen Show:(2:22 mark for the relevant quote)So it’s worth clarifying where things stand with the 2019 NFL Draft coming in just a week.Neither McVay nor Gurley in his remarks yesterday alluded to the idea that he’s going to be fully healthy for Week 1. Obviously, as Todd himself noted, it’s somewhat impossible to know how his knee will heal over the next four months. But there was a notable lack of similarity between McVay’s comments on Todd’s injury and his response on WR Cooper Kupp where he was decidedly more specific and upbeat. That’s not to say McVay wasn’t as upbeat or optimistic about Todd, but perhaps more respectful of the unknown.Because that’s really what this is all about. The unknown of how Todd Gurley’s knee will respond. Gurley aggravated the knee in Week 1, but it responded well enough for Gurley to continue to be the bellcow. After Week 15, not so much.The anxiety is going to be unavoidable. We just don’t know when Gurley’s knee will react like it did in Week 1 and when it will react like it did in Week 15.But clearly, less is more in this case. The less Gurley exposes himself John Franklin-Myers Jersey , the more likely he remains healthy.If we’re to take McVay’s words to account though, it sounds as if we shouldn’t expect to see Gurley much less than we did throughout the last two seasons.Here were Gurley’s carries per week:That’s a pretty stark decline over the course of the season without any major loss of work due to personnel. While Brown was injured in Week 13, the Rams didn’t respond with any personnel change at running back; moreover, neither John Kelly nor Justin Davis picked up any more work than Brown had in backing up Gurley.In the first 12 games of the season, Gurley accounted for 83.83% of the team’s carries. In the next two without Brown, that number barely moved at all increasing to 85.19%. In the playoff jobshare with Anderson across three games? Gurley accounted for 56.96%, 46.38% and 66.15% of the Rams’ carries.So what does being a “focal point” or “central point” mean? Does it mean work rates above 80% and workloads of more than 15 carries per game? Does it mean less and allow for an expanded role for Brown? Do the Rams intend on taking a running back in the draft to take on that role?It’s hard to say right now.But the Rams can’t simply use Gurley with reckless abandon. They re-signed him to a massive deal in July worth $60m with 75% of it guaranteed at signing. The earliest the Rams could get out of the deal would be the 2021 offseason and that would incur dead cap space of more than $8m.So the Rams likely are committed to Todd Gurley for the next three years. Managing his workload and limiting the wear and tear will be an absolutely vital part of Sean McVay’s job. Clearly in 2018, they didn’t manage it well. It’s probably too far to suggest it cost them the Super Bowl Brian Allen Jersey , but only just. And the distance between that idea and reality is probably something close to the distance between Todd Gurley helping to decide the Rams’ future and a future in which he’s sitting on the sideline.After all, it’s a game of inches.