Rams Todd Gurley showing maturity at the right time

As the 2017 season hits the month of December, the growth of Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley is a hard thing to miss.

Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley seems light years from his breakout rookie season of 2015, a season that saw him win Rookie Of The Year honors, and carry sky high expectations into season one back in LA.

It didn’t happen to go well for Gurley or the Rams.

2016 saw the wheels completely come off as the season dissolved, a head coach was fired, and his laid back demeanor fostered an attitude that made him appear aloof, except for a comment about an offense resembling something akin to middle school football.

Both criticisms were fair.

If the perception was that some Rams players, including Gurley, had checked out on the 2016 season, you’d get no argument from me or from a lot of people who watched the Rams last year.

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That was then, and this is now.

The last four games has seen Gurley’s production dip, and while that might be an issue for other high profile running backs around the league, his pragmatic approach is an indication he’s grown as his third season enters the last month of the season.

“As long as we’re winning, I’m cool,” he told the Los Angeles Times recently, via Pro Football Talk.

"“Everybody’s roles are going to have to decrease. I can’t get the ball every time … It’s not all, ‘If Todd doesn’t get the ball 20 times, we’re going to lose.’ That’s a good thing. Even from teams seeing that, ‘Oh, they didn’t use Todd, but they’re still having a great game.’ So, for us just to have players on the team that can step up like that and play their role is amazing.”"

I wasn’t impressed with the then second year running back last season, as excuses about a bad offensive line (a legitimate complaint), and his lack of hitting holes with any authority (a legitimate criticism), framed his “sophomore slump.”

That said, his recent comments on how 2017 has continued to roll out deserves notice. Head coach Sean McVay continues to manage his team the right way, and the ‘buy in’  is noticeable up and down the rank-and-file in Los Angeles.

The winning helps too.

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It’s another indicator of how far the Rams have come a year departed from Jeff Fisher. McVay continues to be the best definition of “right guy, right time, right place.”

Todd Gurley has bought in, and that is paying huge dividends for the Los Angeles Rams.