Yes, Todd Gurley should be expecting a call from Pete Carroll, John Schneider and Seahawks
Pete Carroll and John Schneider will call.
They always call.
They pride themselves on being in on all possible deals. Especially for the kind of asset the Seahawks coach calls “such a complete football player...an incredible factor.”
As sure as the 12th Man flag goes up at every home game, the Seahawks’ decision makers will in the next few days and weeks explore the possibility of adding Todd Gurley.
Yes, Todd Gurley.
The Rams released the fading face of their franchise, their two-time All-Pro running back, on Thursday just two years after they signed him to a $57 million contract extension. The move saves Los Angeles from paying the 25-year-old the final $10.5 million in guarantees on his deal that was due to him on Friday.
It also shows the danger of giving huge, longer-term contracts to players at the position with the shortest life span, in this already short-life-span league. The Rams released Gurley because his arthritic knee has made him a part-time player, not the one that led them to the Super Bowl two seasons ago.
And part-time running backs on bad knees suddenly become available in the NFL.
Gurley didn’t exactly seemed crushed by the news, as if he knows he’s playing for someone this season.
Carroll has long admired Gurley. No wonder. He’s unsuccessfully tried to slow him down twice per season since 2015.
Gurley has gained more yards (694) and scored more touchdowns (12, in nine games) against the Seahawks than against any other NFL team. Carroll, All-Pro Bobby Wagner, fellow linebacker K.J. Wright and other Seahawks defenders still remember what Gurley did to them at CenturyLink Field on Dec. 17, 2017. With the NFC West title on the line, Gurley thrashed Seattle for 144 yards and three touchdowns. In the first half. L.A. crushed the Seahawks 42-7 to seize the division from them.
Just three months ago, Carroll was describing how central Gurley was to the Rams then-defending NFC-champion offense.
“He is. He’s such a great player. He’s just such a complete football player,” Carroll said before the Seahawks lost to the Rams again in California in early December. “The running for sure. The special plays that he makes because of his style and his ability to break tackles and make you miss and all that. Then, given the whole passing game that he’s extremely involved with as well, just gets him space and gets him up the screens and the perimeter stuff that they do.
“He’s an incredible factor. When he’s at his best like he has been, he carried the ball 19 times or 20 times two out of the last three weeks I think, they’re on it. They’re really good when he’s going. He’s just that good of a player.”
But it’s not just because Carroll admires him that the Seahawks will likely be looking into Gurley.
They sure could use him. Even a part-time him.
Carroll said last month at the league’s scouting combine running-back depth was one of his primary offseason concerns. That makes it likely the Seahawks will address it either in free agency or the draft next month that is deep in quality running backs.
“We have to make sure that we have enough depth,” Carroll said late last month.
Lead rushing Chris Carson, who’s rushed for more than 1,100 and 1,200 yards in each of his last two seasons, is coming off a season-ending cracked hip. It didn’t need surgery, but at the beginning of this month the team didn’t know when Carson would resume running. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
Carson has rushed for 2,381 yards with 18 total touchdowns the last two seasons. He said in mid-January he has his sights on being ready for the start of training camp in July.
“I mean, you never know,” Carson said Jan. 15. “But that’s the goal.”
But Carson has not yet been cleared by doctors for full rehabilitation.
“There’s not a whole lot Chris can do, so he hasn’t done many things wrong,” Carroll said three weeks ago of Carson’s rehabilitation so far this offseason. “It’s an injury that takes time.
“It’s serious because it’s a hip, but it’s not serious in that we know what’s gonna happen. It’s not displaced or any of that kind of stuff. We just need to wait it out, which is really hard for Chris because he’s a workout maniac and loves to be in the weight room and all that. He’s doing the best he can and he’s done everything he can possibly do and we’re just hoping he just doesn’t overdue it, so we’re trying to monitor that.
“But we’re counting on a full recovery. He should be ready to go.”
Yet the Seahawks are going to manage Carson’s plays in practices this preseason into the regular season
Carroll said Rashaad Penny, Seattle’s number-two running back and first-round draft choice in 2018, is likely to begin training camp in July if not the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list. Penny is in the early stages of recovering from a season-ending knee injury he got in that Rams game in early December.
C.J. Prosise, last season’s number-three back who broke his arm in December, is now an unsigned free agent. The Seahawks aren’t giving any signs they are going to bring back the running back who had nine different injuries in the four years since the team drafted him.
That leaves Seattle with Travis Homer and Adam Choice as the only other running backs on the roster. Both were rookies last season. Choice spent it on injured reserve.
Homer, the sixth-round pick from Miami a year ago, became the fourth-choice lead back in late December. He got his first carry in the offense late that final month of the regular season. That was after Carson, Penny and Prosise got hurt and the Seahawks brought back Marshawn Lynch from 14 months in football exile.
Lynch signed only for the final two games of the regular season and the playoffs this past season. Carroll said Schneider aren’t ruling out Lynch possibly playing again for Seattle in 2020.
“Never say never,” Carroll said at the combine last month.
But Lynch’s return would be on another special, partial-season deal.
“I’m not going to rush him back to offseason, that’s for sure,” the coach said. “That’s never been one of his strengths.”
All this leaves this team that still will base its offense and season on Carroll’s preferred running game with a shortage of runners for 2020.
Asked if the running-back position is a concern, Carroll said last month: “Depth wise, early on, in camp (for this summer).
“Homer did a great job for us. We’re thrilled for what he added...he’s legitimately a factor. He’s got some stuff that he does in his style that’s different than the other guys that we really like. But we have to make sure that we have enough depth.
“Chris should be absolutely fine. We won’t overdue it with him. He’s had two great back-to-back seasons. We’re going to take care of him throughout all the way to game time when it comes up.
“So that means we’ve got some spots available for guys to compete for, so we’ll see how that goes.”
And now Todd Gurley falls out of the sky as a suddenly unrestricted free agent? With a blank slate contractually and free to negotiate with the team he’s tormented for the last five seasons? With the need for only situational, part-time work, not an every-down load that Carson will re-claim by September?
Oh, yeah, he should be expected at least a call from Seattle.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 2:41 PM.
