When the Los Angeles Rams signed Todd Gurley to a four-year extension back in 2018, they likely knew there’d be a chance he wouldn’t play out the entire contract. Players get cut, traded and retire all the time before their contracts toll, and the way Gurley’s deal was structured made it possible for the Rams to move on before 2023.
What they probably didn’t expect to do was cut Gurley before the contract even kicked in. Yet, here we are.
Gurley is no longer a member of the team after being released on Thursday. He was scooped up quickly by the Atlanta Falcons, who are signing him to a one-year deal worth $5 million.
There are several reasons the Rams have found themselves in this situation, including the fact that Gurley’s knee seemingly deteriorated not long after the contract was signed. But the biggest source of blame is the front office that handed out this deal.
It’s an example of completely mismanaging a contract situation in an attempt to reward a player for past performance. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to take care of your players, but the Rams signed Gurley two years before they had to – and now they’re paying dearly for it.
By cutting him now, Los Angeles is taking on $20.15 million in dead money. That’s the second-largest charge in NFL history, behind only Antonio Brown’s dead cap hit of $21.1 million with the Raiders last year.
Just think about that for a second. The Rams were so desperate to move on from Gurley before he could play a down on his new contract that they ate more than $20 million to cut him. If that’s not admitting a mistake, I don’t know what is.
And the reported reason for the Rams moving on makes things that much worse, once again showing how badly this entire situation was mismanaged.
“That’s why they had to (cut him) — he’d become a huge distraction,” the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke said on ESPN’s “Around the Horn.” “He wasn’t the player he once was, his knee was bad, he’s lost his agility, he’s lost his speed. Yet, the locker room demanded that he play, Gurley wanted to play more, he wanted to get more carries, the Rams couldn’t do it, they didn’t know how to explain it to the public, they didn’t want to give away the injury. So every week, the answer was — every week he was in question, why isn’t Gurley running the ball more?”
The worst part is that all of this could’ve been avoided. The Rams signed Gurley to an extension with two years left on his contract. Had he played out the entire length of his rookie deal, he would’ve made $11.95 million, which included the fifth-year option in 2020.
Instead, he earned $34.5 million over that same stretch, meaning the Rams paid him $22.55 million more than they needed to.
Todd Gurley's rookie contract originally would have run until 2020 and paid him $11.95M. Ended up earning $34.5M over the same term, a $22.55M raise. Never actually played a down in any of the new contract years. #Rams
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 19, 2020
That’s evidence of a botched contract situation by the organization, one which will set the team back in the next couple of years. In an alternate universe, the Rams would’ve let Gurley play out his rookie deal, he would’ve hit free agency this offseason and left to sign with the Falcons anyway.
In that scenario, the Rams would’ve taken on exactly zero dollars in dead money, and likely recouped a compensatory pick in the 2021 NFL Draft for his departure. That sounds a whole lot better than paying him $20.15 million to play elsewhere.
It’s not as if Gurley threatened to hold out if he didn’t get an extension before the 2018 season. He gave no indications of such, saying in April that year, “Nah, I’m good, man. I’m here, so, you know.”
There’s an argument that can be made for the Rams trying to set the running back market rather than having it set for them. David Johnson, Ezekiel Elliott and Le’Veon Bell were all due for new deals in the near future, too, and Los Angeles seemed to want to get ahead of it.
Instead of looking smart for getting Gurley’s deal done first, the Rams now have egg on their face and are now a cautionary tale of giving running backs big-money contracts – especially before necessary.
They have to find ways to free up cap space to make up for the lost money left behind by Gurley. They can’t pay other players as much now because of the dead money they had to swallow with Gurley’s deal.
That waters down the talent across the rest of the roster, forcing the Rams to draft extremely well, find cheap free agents and rely on mid-round picks to fill starting roles.
Luckily, the salary cap should spike in 2021 under the new CBA, but there’s no doubt the Rams are a prime example of the risk that comes with paying running backs big money.