Arthritis seems to be reason for Rams limiting Todd Gurley in playoffs

Todd Gurley has arthritis in his left knee, which may explain why the Rams kept him limited during the playoffs.

If you watched the Los Angeles Rams in the 2018 playoffs — on their way to an appearance in Super Bowl LIII — it wasn’t hard to tell that running back Todd Gurley was not fully healthy. Despite exceeding 1,200 rushing yards during the regular season, the Rams played Gurley in very limited action during the postseason.

The interesting part is that both Gurley and the Rams claimed he was healthy, so his limited usage in Los Angeles’ three playoff games seemed a tad fishy. As it turns out, Gurley is dealing with arthritis in his left knee, which is the same knee that needed ACL surgery in 2014, as reported by Jeff Howe of The Athletic.

As Howe mentions in his tweet, this likely explains why the Rams were so hesitant to heavily utilize Gurley in the postseason, assuming they were fully aware of the situation. It seems likely they were, because Gurley is arguably the most dominant running back in football, and if he were at 100 percent the Rams wouldn’t have held back in letting him rack up the yardage on the ground.

Even with Gurley seeing limited action, and with newcomer C.J. Anderson taking on a large brunt of the work, the Rams managed to pull off a pair of playoff wins against Dallas and New Orleans. In the Super Bowl, however, they were held to just three points in a 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots. There’s no doubt a healthy Gurley could’ve made a difference in that game.

The biggest thing to monitor will be to see how Gurley recovers over the next several months leading up to the 2019 season. The Rams are hoping that surgery won’t be required, but if that’s the case, it will be interesting to see how well Gurley’s knee heals up on its own.