Todd Gurley Sets Training Camp Return As Possible

During the 2015 NFL Draft, the St. Louis Rams spent their tenth overall pick on Todd Gurley, an extremely talented Georgia back that suffered a season ending ACL tear last November. However, despite reports that he may not be ready by the beginning of the season, Gurley feels confident enough in his rehabilitation, which is reportedly ahead of schedule, that a return at training camp is possible.

Todd Gurley Sets Training Camp Return

“That is definitely a goal that I’m shooting for,” Gurley told NFL’s Tiffany Blackmon. “Just to be able to get out there and do at least some individual stuff. It’s looking pretty realistic. This month I’ll be in St. Louis rehabbing, so hopefully I can aim for [training camp].”

Again, this is not set in stone, especially since it is coming out of the athlete’s mouth and not a doctor’s. But it is easy to see why he is anxious. The leap from college to professional ball is massive and when you miss precious reps — he was only reserved to rehab and light walkthroughs during OTAs — then you start off behind.

Still, he has been putting in the mental work, learning the Rams’ offense. “It’s been going pretty good,” Gurley said. “When we first came in with the rookies for minicamp, you get the install those three days and then OTAs came around — it kind of slows [the offense] down a little bit because you get to have more practices and a lot more meetings. So it’s been coming a long pretty good so far.”

It is obvious that the Rams are in no rush to put Gurley on the field, as they want to protect their investment. At the same time, the addition of Gurley would help the Rams’ struggling offense, which has ranked 28th or worse in three of the last five seasons — St. Louis did not even crack the top 20 in the other two years — and has not had a 1,000-yard rusher since the departure of Steven Jackson.