Rams clearly jumped the gun last offseason by extending Todd Gurley

Looking back, the Los Angeles Rams may end up rewarding Todd Gurley with that hefty extension last offseason when looking at the knee issues the running back has been dealing with.

After a 2017 campaign that consisted of Todd Gurley finishing second in the MVP voting to Tom Brady, the Los Angeles Rams pulled off another one of their surprise offseason moves last July by rewarding their beloved running back with a hefty extension.

At the time, the Rams seemed to have the mindset of wanting to get Gurley’s extension out of the way since they knew it would need to be addressed at some point.

Not to mention, with Los Angeles knowing that other players like Aaron Donald and Jared Goff would need new contracts as well down the road, it sort of made sense for the Rams to get Gurley’s out of the way.

Some were quite surprised by the decision of the Rams to reward Gurley with a hefty extension that guaranteed the running back $45 million since it was the largest guarantee for a running back at the time, but now it’s tough not to wonder if the decision was a mistake.

Without question, Gurley’s mysterious knee injury has been one of the most frustrating questions surrounding Los Angeles this offseason since no one really knows what to expect from the Pro Bowl running back.

Between the Rams keeping everyone in the dark during the end of the playoffs and Super Bowl to the news that eventually broke later on in regards to him dealing with arthritis, it’s easy to understand all of the frustration surrounding Gurley this offseason.

Even with the Rams taking the safe approach during OTAs by having Gurley to his own thing instead of participating in drills, it’s still difficult to predict how this situation is going to play out in 2019, which is why that hefty contract seems like it will now come with regret.

Obviously, there isn’t anything Los Angeles can do at the moment to change their previous approach with Gurley’s contract, but it’s safe to say the team jumped the gun over July’s extension.

One can only imagine how different things would have been if the Rams waited an extra year since Gurley was already under contract through the 2019 season, and they most likely would have held off any contract talks to see how the knee looked come September.

But since there’s nothing Los Angeles can do with Gurley’s knee other than hope for the best moving forward, here’s to hoping his hefty contract doesn’t end up haunting the Rams over the next couple of years, and he can return to his normal ways on offense.

If not, well at least Los Angeles brought in another running back on board during April’s draft in Darrell Henderson to help take some of the pressure off Gurley to have somewhat of a backup plan just in case.