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https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/todd ... -workload/

Todd Gurley's trainer Travelle Gaines confirmed to CBS Sports that his client is dealing with an "arthritic component to his knee," but stressed that Gurley will be ready for the 2019 season.
"Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it's a shoulder, a knee, an ankle," Gaines said late last week. "He's now at the year-five mark, all we're doing is managing that. If we can pound him less in the offseason while keeping his weight down, working on his strength, working on his agility in short areas, that's going to give him a better chance to be healthy Weeks 14 through 17 when they really count."
When asked about Gurley losing touches, potentially to new rookie Darrell Henderson, Gaines expressed optimism.
"It's never been told to me that there's a plan to decrease his workload come Week 1," Gaines said. "At the end of the day, you need solid running backs, and they grabbed a home-run running back in the third round. ... If you watched the games last year, Todd typically sat out two to three series last year. I don't see anything changing with that, so you need a back who can catch, and I believe Darrell averaged around 9.0 yards per carry, a home-run type guy."
Gurley tore his left ACL while at Georgia in 2014. Though he recovered fully and went on to post All-Pro caliber campaigns in 2017 and 2018, he seemed to deal with some kind of problem related to the knee last December. Gurley missed the final two games of the regular season and played sparingly in the playoffs, including a 10-carry, 35-yard outing versus the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

The Athletic reported in March that Gurley was dealing with arthritis, but that was never confirmed by the team or by Gurley. Rams head coach Sean McVay has only discussed a plan put in place for Gurley to follow this offseason, noting as recently as last week that Gurley "looks good" after doing "some things over here that we thought would be good from a maintenance standpoint."

[AvengerRam]

So, after all the discussion, debate, innuendo, etc.... the reality is exactly what most of us have been saying.

Of course a knee that has undergone an ACL repair will have an "arthritic component." That's just a fancy way of saying that there is potential for occasional swelling in the joint. That does not mean that Gurley has a degenerative condition that will be debilitating in the near or even the immediately foreseeable future (which many inferred from Jeff Howe's earlier "report"). If just means that when you replace a person's ligament with a graft taken from another part of the body, there can be some lingering effects. Its not a new diagnosis or anything Earth shattering.

While the use of the word "arthritic" will, no doubt, get most of the headlines/quotes/sound bites and tweets, the real key to the article is the following quote:

"It's never been told to me that there's a plan to decrease his workload come Week 1."

So, with that, I'm looking forward to watching Gurley run the ball Week 1 against Carolina.

[Elvis]

Here's the CBS article:

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/todd ... -workload/

Todd Gurley's trainer: All-Pro has an 'arthritic component to his knee' but hasn't been told of plan to decrease workload

Gurley missed the final two games of the 2018 season and played sparingly in the playoffs

Dave Richard
mugshot by Dave Richard
@daverichard

Todd Gurley's trainer Travelle Gaines confirmed to CBS Sports that his client is dealing with an "arthritic component to his knee," but stressed that Gurley will be ready for the 2019 season.

"Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it's a shoulder, a knee, an ankle," Gaines said late last week. "He's now at the year-five mark, all we're doing is managing that. If we can pound him less in the offseason while keeping his weight down, working on his strength, working on his agility in short areas, that's going to give him a better chance to be healthy Weeks 14 through 17 when they really count."

When asked about Gurley losing touches, potentially to new rookie Darrell Henderson, Gaines expressed optimism.

"It's never been told to me that there's a plan to decrease his workload come Week 1," Gaines said. "At the end of the day, you need solid running backs, and they grabbed a home-run running back in the third round. ... If you watched the games last year, Todd typically sat out two to three series last year. I don't see anything changing with that, so you need a back who can catch, and I believe Darrell averaged around 9.0 yards per carry, a home-run type guy."

Gurley tore his left ACL while at Georgia in 2014. Though he recovered fully and went on to post All-Pro caliber campaigns in 2017 and 2018, he seemed to deal with some kind of problem related to the knee last December. Gurley missed the final two games of the regular season and played sparingly in the playoffs, including a 10-carry, 35-yard outing versus the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

The Athletic reported in March that Gurley was dealing with arthritis, but that was never confirmed by the team or by Gurley. Rams head coach Sean McVay has only discussed a plan put in place for Gurley to follow this offseason, noting as recently as last week that Gurley "looks good" after doing "some things over here that we thought would be good from a maintenance standpoint."



Those things aren't actually anything different than what Gurley's been doing during each of the last three offseasons since Gaines became Gurley's trainer in Los Angeles.

"Not one thing has changed," said Gaines, who owns and operates his own performance training center, Athletic Gaines, in Los Angeles. "Our routine has worked, he's been strong, he's been in great shape, he's done well.

"He got a little tired toward the end of last year because he was carrying the ball a lot. Could he have played last year? Yeah, but when you already have the division and seeding clinched, what was the point?"

NFL Network reported in late May that Gurley intended to lose about six pounds after playing at 224 pounds last year. Gaines shot down rumors that the weight loss had to do with his knee.



"It was a collective decision for him to play a little lighter this year, not because of injuries, just because I just feel he's one of the faster players in the league," Gaines said. "He doesn't have to play at 224. 218 is only six pounds less, so I wanted to decrease his body fat a little bit and get him to the point where he's a tad smaller so he can be a tad faster and a little bit bigger from a lean muscle mass standpoint. He's going from basically 10 percent body fat to 7 percent body fat."

Ultimately, Gurley did not participate in any offseason workouts or minicamp practices with the Rams. Gaines believes the reason for that was obvious.

"Todd was paid $60 million over four years and the Rams want to get every dime out of that contract," he said. "So what good is it to pound him in April and May when you need him in November, December and January?"

The plan, per Gaines, is to spend all of July ramping up Gurley's work away from the field so that he can participate in training camp. And after that?

"Todd is asked to do a lot in that offense, so to preserve him as much as possible is what the goal of the game is," he said. "Their sports science department and sports medicine department are made up of very sharp individuals, so whatever they subscribe and ask me to help out with to do with Todd as Todd's with me every single day, I'm going to do it. I think the Rams have a great formula and are a phenomenal franchise."

The Rams didn't use Gurley in any preseason games last year, something Gaines expects to happen again this fall.

The team may also have a couple of joint practices with other teams but it's not clear if Gurley will partake in those or be held out.

[Hacksaw]

Not to long ago the Rams running backs were more of a trivia question, , , "can you name him?" Now our current boy wonder is getting more 'run' than he probably should. I guess that comes with greatness.
Inquiring minds want to know....

[aeneas1]

sounds to me like tarvelle is saying that there's always an ongoing management component after major surgery regardless of injury location, gee what a mind-bending surprise, while adding "arthritic" to his response because, well, that seems to be the only language these hacks understand... honestly, jeff howe must be laughing his ass off!

anyway, the rest of the article that wasn't included in the original post:

Those things aren't actually anything different than what Gurley's been doing during each of the last three offseasons since Gaines became Gurley's trainer in Los Angeles.

"Not one thing has changed," said Gaines, who owns and operates his own performance training center, Athletic Gaines, in Los Angeles. "Our routine has worked, he's been strong, he's been in great shape, he's done well.

"He got a little tired toward the end of last year because he was carrying the ball a lot. Could he have played last year? Yeah, but when you already have the division and seeding clinched, what was the point?"

NFL Network reported in late May that Gurley intended to lose about six pounds after playing at 224 pounds last year. Gaines shot down rumors that the weight loss had to do with his knee.

"It was a collective decision for him to play a little lighter this year, not because of injuries, just because I just feel he's one of the faster players in the league," Gaines said. "He doesn't have to play at 224. 218 is only six pounds less, so I wanted to decrease his body fat a little bit and get him to the point where he's a tad smaller so he can be a tad faster and a little bit bigger from a lean muscle mass standpoint. He's going from basically 10 percent body fat to 7 percent body fat."

Ultimately, Gurley did not participate in any offseason workouts or minicamp practices with the Rams. Gaines believes the reason for that was obvious.

"Todd was paid $60 million over four years and the Rams want to get every dime out of that contract," he said. "So what good is it to pound him in April and May when you need him in November, December and January?"

The plan, per Gaines, is to spend all of July ramping up Gurley's work away from the field so that he can participate in training camp. And after that?

"Todd is asked to do a lot in that offense, so to preserve him as much as possible is what the goal of the game is," he said. "Their sports science department and sports medicine department are made up of very sharp individuals, so whatever they subscribe and ask me to help out with to do with Todd as Todd's with me every single day, I'm going to do it. I think the Rams have a great formula and are a phenomenal franchise."

The Rams didn't use Gurley in any preseason games last year, something Gaines expects to happen again this fall.

The team may also have a couple of joint practices with other teams but it's not clear if Gurley will partake in those or be held out.

[AltiTude Ram]

So it turns out he's not hurt or wasn't hurt just as the Rams and Gurley had been saying.

It's just a great plan to make him better than the $6 million dollar man. Bigger, Faster and Stronger than he was.

[AvengerRam]

I still find Howe's "report" to be hack-like. I don't think he had any actual inside information. "Arthritis" is just a general term, and he used it. Perhaps he intended it to be blown out of proportion, or perhaps it took on a life of its own. Either way, the "hit and run" nature of it, with no specifically cited source, makes me feel it was more of an attention-grab than anything else.

In any event, I'm just not all that worried about Gurley for this upcoming season.

[moklerman]

All I know is, this isn't a "non" issue. Something hampered him last year and there's no indication that it's going away. As a fan, that's what it boils down to. If it's from his college injury then it's just going to get a little worse every year moving forward. If it's a mystery thing, then I've got to always wondered when it's going to rear it's head again.

Until further notice, I'm going to feel about Gurley the same way that things went with Faulk 2002+. I hope he stays healthy but it's a rare thing for a RB to have a long life span on a bad knee.

[AltiTude Ram]

All I know is, this isn't a "non" issue. Something hampered him last year and there's no indication that it's going away. As a fan, that's what it boils down to. If it's from his college injury then it's just going to get a little worse every year moving forward. If it's a mystery thing, then I've got to always wondered when it's going to rear it's head again.

Until further notice, I'm going to feel about Gurley the same way that things went with Faulk 2002+. I hope he stays healthy but it's a rare thing for a RB to have a long life span on a bad knee.

I disagree. I think this is a complete "non" issue.

Gurley got banged up at the end of the season. Malcolm Brown was already hurt. The Rams went out and got C.J. and he carried the load the last 2 games.

Gurley rested 3 weeks and came back strong as his game against the Cowboys proved. The 2 games after that have been explained as to his usage and in game situations.

The Rams are just getting out in front of this with not exposing Gurley to needless contact. They're doing the right thing to ensure Gurley is playing deep into the playoffs at his highest level of performance.

There's no doubt in my mind that Gurley will have another MVP caliber season this year.

It's arthritis. I heard Jim Miller on Sirius radio say before that when a doctor doesn't know what it is they attach itis to the end of the word. It's completely manageable and the Rams are doing just that.

Gurley is a NFL running back. He will get banged up just from the job description. No guarantees he doesn't get hurt going forward but right now he's healthy and as good as he's ever been. Maybe still getting better every day as McVay likes to say.

[/zn/]

So it turns out he's not hurt or wasn't hurt just as the Rams and Gurley had been saying.

It's just a great plan to make him better than the $6 million dollar man. Bigger, Faster and Stronger than he was.

See, though, what they didn't do was directly answer the question, is the knee arthritic?

"Hurt" is a different thing---it's a physical trauma of some kind, like a rip, tear, break, deep sprain, or deep bruise. In fact the whole "is he hurt or not" thing was not the right issue all along. That's not what this is.

The question always was, does he have some kind of condition associated with the surgical knee. I always thought yes, because it flared up in week 1 (according to McVay), and then he was fine, and then it flared up again in December, then subsided again (after rest this time). So it happened twice in 2018. Both times he was then fine.

So the whole thing about is he hurt, will he play this season, is he limping, ha ha people are asking if he's limping---all of that stuff was beside the point.

But. Does he have an underlying condition associated with a surgical knee that HAS and also CAN flare up? Apparently, yes.

AND. A running back can play with an arthritic knee. Faulk did. So this is not a case of Gurley being diminished as a resource in 2019. It CAN flare up, BUT they can also manage it, AND he can be productive when it DOESN’T flare up. So Gurley is not “done.” We ought to see a couple of more productive years, as we did with Faulk back then.