How important for the LA Rams is getting RB Todd Gurley back on track?

The LA Rams brass asserts that the team is committed to getting RB Todd Gurley back on track in 2020. How important is it for the team to do so?

The LA Rams would love nothing more than to open the 2020 NFL season with a 100-yard two-touchdown performance by running back Todd Gurley. The front office has been aware of the situation, and continues to claim that “the fix is in.”  The coaching staff has been aware of the situation, and continues to claim that “the fix is in.”  Even running back Todd Gurley himself has shot down persistent concerns about his overall health, and specifically, the status of his knees.

But the sudden disappearance of Gurley began at the end of the 2018 season.  It carried into the 2018 playoffs and followed the LA Rams into Super Bowl 53. The situation has continued through the 2019 season, despite the insistence of everyone within the LA Rams organization that there was no issue.

By the beginning of the 2019 season,  the team consented to a need to manage Gurley’s workload. Their solution? The team ran Gurley about 20 percent fewer times in 2019. In its place, the Rams pushed QB Jared Goff’s passing attempts to his all-time high.  Rumors started reaching the general public before the 2019 season began.  By December 2019, NFL.com’s Michael Silver name Todd Gurley as a player who could be a salary-cap casualty this off-season.

The Rams know that the future of the team rests in getting Gurley on track. But so far, it’s as though everyone associated with the LA Rams is either in denial or oblivious to the evidence that a problem with Gurley’s production does exist.