If the Rams are going to extend their Super Bowl window while still

dealing with Gurley’s worst case scenario Greg Zuerlein Jersey , they will need to embrace a new identity...while paying for an old one."Compared to the NBA, teams in the NFL aren’t usually saddled with costly contracts that threaten to impede any opportunities to improve the roster. Most of the time, a team can cut bait without clogging up the salary cap too much. The Los Angeles Rams’ problem with RB Todd Gurley’s knee is not a “most of the time” situation. This is rarified air.Not even a year after signing a massive multi-year contract, Gurley is rumored to have arthritis in a knee that was first injured in November of 2014 playing for the Georgia Bulldogs.Without going into the medical guessing game of the actual severity of Todd Gurley’s knee, let’s just assume that for right now Gurley is not going to be the bell cow running back that he showed himself to be at times.Does the Super Bowl window for the Rams suddenly close if Gurley can’t handle more than a half dozen or so touches a game and is basically a shadow of himself? This would obviously be a bad beat for the front office of the Rams. Gurley’s four-year, $60m contract doesn’t even kick in until after the 2019 season, and $45m of that money is guaranteed. So Jacob McQuaide Jersey , things would look pretty grim on the salary cap front if Gurley’s knee doesn’t improve.However, Rams Head Coach McVay wouldn’t exactly be left without an avenue to success. He has already shown that he can win with heavy doses of QB Jared Goff’s passing attack and the experiment with RB C.J. Anderson proved to be an effective addition. While it’s definitely not the preferred option, the Rams aren’t down for the count.The Rams would need to change their identity though.The Rams could lean on their tight ends more, giving more of the spotlight to Gerald Everett — which is what McVay was expected to do when he was hired with the Rams, given his success with Washington’s tight ends. An interesting wrinkle: if Gurley can’t be counted on to be a major piece in the offense, does this change the team’s thoughts about signing Jared Goff to a massive extension? Without the threat of an elite athlete in the backfield, does Goff take a huge step backwards?The LA Rams need to acquire a running back (or backs) on the cheap in order to mask their potential Gurley problem. This could very well be solved by developing RB John Kelly in such a way that Gurley could mentor the young rusher while he’s still under his rookie contract. Given that Anderson was brought in at the end of last season Dominique Easley Jersey , it seems the coaches weren’t confident in Kelly’s progress. It might be a stretch to expect him to make the leap for the 2019 season.Acquiring a productive, big name running back in free agency would likely be a no-go since the Rams just don’t have the budget for it. A combination of new options from the 2019 NFL Draft, the undrafted free agent period thereafter and any development from Kelly seem like the most likely remedies.If Gurley’s knee does indeed cut short his brilliant career, the Rams will need a lot of luck, ingenious strategy, and a brand new offensive gameplan. Let’s just hope that isn’t necessary.The Rams gave Todd a contract he deserved to as the heart of the Rams’ offense.Just a month after Super Bowl LIII, it sounds like that heartbeat might be fainter than ever. The original idea behind compensatory picks was to help maintain parity in the NFL: The league has never wanted wealthy teams in big markets to be able to buy up all the top talent and leave the small-market teams struggling Troy Hill Jersey , so the compensatory pick formula gives additional picks to teams that have lost high-priced free agents to other teams.But in the years since the NFL started awarding compensatory picks, they’ve actually helped the best teams stay on top. That’s never been more true than this year, when the two Super Bowl participants, the Patriots and Rams, were the only teams that received two third-round compensatory picks. Compensatory picks will help the best teams get better.The NFL, with its salary cap and revenue sharing, doesn’t have the same issues with big-market teams out-bidding small-market teams that have been problems in other sports leagues. So compensatory picks don’t go to the have-nots as compensation for losing key players to the haves.Instead Michael Brockers Jersey , compensatory picks go to the teams that were already good, and had such an abundance of good players that some of them signed high-priced contracts elsewhere. Teams like the Patriots and Rams.Also benefiting the best teams is the fact that their success gives job security to their decision makers, and a front office that is secure in its job is willing to play the long game and wait out free agency this year to get compensatory picks next year. On bad teams, the G.M. knows he’s on thin ice and might lose his job without a winning season, so he needs to sign free agents who can help this year, not wait for compensatory picks next year. It’s no coincidence that the Ravens, who had the league’s longest-tenured G.M. in Ozzie Newsome Ethan Westbrooks Jersey , are also the team that has acquired the most compensatory picks. Newsome knew he had job security, which made him feel comfortable building for the future with compensatory picks, which in turn perpetuated his job security.So while compensatory picks were implemented for the sake of parity in theory, in practice they’ve had the opposite effect: Compensatory picks help the top teams stay on top.