Los Angeles Rams: Limiting Todd Gurley is the smartest thing to do

Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley has not had the most explosive start to the year, with many pushing the team to use their elite back more often.

The Los Angeles Rams have the most talented running back in the league in Todd Gurley but there are more questions than answers around Gurley this season. We still do not know if his knee is entirely healthy and the Rams seem to be favoring his workload because of it.

Gurley, while he is still being used, has a noticeably smaller role in the offense and has not enjoyed a hot start because of it. Gurley has just 203 yards on 44 carries with one rushing touchdown. He also has four receptions that are good for eight yards.

In comparison, Gurley had 255 yards on 62 carries with four rushing touchdowns through three games last season. He also had 11 receptions for 121 yards and one touchdown. So through three games this year, Gurley is averaging 43 yards from scrimmage fewer per game than last year.

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That may not seem like a massive difference but it has been noticeable. So noticeable, in fact, that Sean McVay even commented on it, saying that he needs to do a better job in allowing Gurley to get into a rhythm.

This also has caused fans and analysts following the Rams to be concerned. Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, wrote a piece about how the Rams’ offense is not the same with Gurley playing 15 percent fewer snaps, stating that Gurley eventually needs to be more involved.

It is true, the Rams’ offense has been fairly sluggish and Jared Goff has not been the same without Gurley, we saw that in the postseason last year as well.

And if you look at the team’s first three wins, they are against a hobbled quarterback, a backup quarterback and a team that has massively underwhelmed and is poorly coached. It is easy to see why some would be worried.

But quite frankly, it is a good thing that the Rams are limiting Gurley at the beginning of the season. There is absolutely a difference between winning games in an ugly fashion and winning them in a blowout. But at the end of the day, they all count the same.

The Rams are going to get enough wins to win the NFC West and fight for home-field advantage. Four of their remaining 12 games are essential locks (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals, twice), meaning they just have to piece together five more wins in the remaining nine games.

And it is not like that slate of games is all that challenging, either. They play the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers in four of those games. It is very unlikely that they win fewer than two of those games.

They also get to play a Pittsburgh Steelers team without Ben Roethlisberger, which suddenly becomes a much easier task. The Chicago Bears have underwhelmed and that game is in LA this time, the Atlanta Falcons have underwhelmed and the two remaining games are against two teams that have beaten up on bad teams: the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys.

The Los Angeles Rams can accidentally stumble to 11 wins in that schedule even without Gurley. They eventually should get him going, but it is way too soon to worry about it.

Even if his knee is 100 percent, we have already seen that he will wear down throughout the year. So why are the Rams going to waste all of his mileage early in the year when it gave them a noticeable disadvantage in the postseason last year?

The Los Angeles Rams are fine. They are 3-0 and they have the best running back in the league that they can unleash at any time. As long as they are winning it should not even be a worry if Gurley is not out there as much.

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When they need him they will call on him, don’t you worry about that. Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill.

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