Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Running back Todd Gurley has developed into one of the best running backs in the NFL, and the Los Angeles Rams rewarded him with a new contract Tuesday. Rams head coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead confirmed to reporters that Gurley has agreed to a contract extension. "Feel fortunate to be able to work with players like Todd," McVay said. Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, it's a four-year deal through the 2023 season worth up to $60 million with $45 million guaranteed. Schefter noted Gurley's guaranteed money and average annual salary are the most for any running back in NFL history. Gurley is coming off a second-place finish in last year's MVP voting, but his coach still thinks there's room for him to get better. "Even as great of a player as Todd is, I think there's always room for improvement," McVay told reporters. The Rams selected Gurley with the No. 10 overall pick of the 2015 draft out of Georgia, and he had a fifth-year option for 2019 on his rookie contract before agreeing to this new deal. Video Play Button Videos you might like Star running back Le'Veon Bell, who is in a contract standoff with the Pittsburgh Steelers, reacted to the news: There is little doubt Gurley outplayed his old contract given his production during the first three seasons of his career. He spearheaded Los Angeles' NFC West title in 2017 with 1,305 rushing yards, 788 receiving yards and 19 total touchdowns while the team finished 11-5 after a 4-12 effort in 2016. Gurley struggled some during that 2016 campaign (3.2 yards per carry on his way to 885 rushing yards), but he impressed as a rookie with 1,106 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Still, the two-time Pro Bowler earned his new contract largely because of his showing in 2017 in his first year under McVay's coaching. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, he joined O.J. Simpson and Marshall Faulk as the only three players in NFL history to tally 2,000 yards from scrimmage, 10 rushing touchdowns and five touchdown catches in the same year. NFL Total Access compared his production favorably to the numbers Adrian Peterson put up during his MVP campaign for the Minnesota Vikings in 2012: Gurley fits in perfectly with McVay's offense, and there figures to be even more production moving forward considering he is only 23 years old. If Gurley continues to improve and thrive as one of the best offensive playmakers in the NFL, his new deal will be well worth it from Los Angeles' perspective.<doc-sep>John Froschauer/Associated Press We are no longer in the Era of the Quarterback. We are in the Era of the Running Back. The lush and risky four-year, $60 million contract extension the Rams signed Todd Gurley to Tuesday, according to a source, illustrates that. And there are more running back deals on the horizon that might be wealthier. While quarterback remains the most important position, the running back is re-emerging as the most dominant one. That may seem like a contradiction, but it's not. As a team source with the Rams explained, "Quarterbacks are the prize, but running backs are the warriors." Translation: Pass-throwers are still the key in a passing league, but runners like Gurley, on teams that don't have Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson, are the players who actually win games. Running backs have signed big-money deals before, but it's been decades since teams, frightened by the threat of injury at one of the more injury-prone positions, flushed them with large amounts of guaranteed cash. It's also been a long time since we've seen runners outshine quarterbacks in popularity and importance. But we are starting to see exactly that. It's like the NFL has stepped into a time machine and traveled back to the 1990s, when players like Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Thurman Thomas ruled the Earth. Video Play Button Videos you might like After Gurley, Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell likely will get an even bigger deal at some point in the future, and he even tweeted about Gurley's deal Tuesday. And there are already league rumblings that Arizona's David Johnson will get a significant pay raise from his rookie deal by the time the season starts. The Rams team source said in a text the deal with Gurley (which the source confirmed includes approximately $45 million in guaranteed money) came together quickly in the past week, adding that the team sees Gurley as a transformative figure in the NFL landscape. Keith Srakocic/Associated Press Indeed, while players like Tom Brady still rule the sport, the investment teams are making financially and tactically to their ground games is growing—quickly. In Arizona, Los Angeles, Buffalo, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Miami, the running games are (mostly) the stars, not the quarterbacks. In Tennessee, Dallas and Kansas City, offenses lean as heavily on runners as they do the quarterbacks. Even in places like Atlanta, where Matt Ryan puts up astronomical numbers, he is greatly assisted by Devonta Freeman (watch those Freemans). The only places where quarterbacks remain unquestioned kings are in New England, Green Bay and Seattle. The Super Bowl champion Eagles finished with 2,115 rushing yards last year, third-best in football. Want more proof? Consider the dramatic uptick of draft capital teams are investing at the position. Before the Giants selected Saquon Barkley second overall this past spring, the average position of the first running back taken in the draft since 1995 was 14th overall. Barkley was the highest runner selected since 2006, when the Saints picked Reggie Bush. David J. Phillip/Associated Press Truth be told, the draft has been trending that way even before this year. Leonard Fournette went fourth overall and Christian McCaffrey eighth in the 2017 draft. Ezekiel Elliott was fourth in 2016 and Gurley 10th in 2015. Melvin Gordon was 15th that same year. But in 2013 and 2014, not a single running back was taken in the first round. That broke a streak stretching back to 1936, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. What's changing? The economics of the sport, for one. The league has piles of cash, and the salary cap continues to rise significantly. This gives teams the ability to take more risks since they can more quickly recover from a runner who doesn't work out. Ten years ago, however, giving a back the kind of money Gurley just received, or Bell will, was considered far too risky. The less physical nature of the sport is also changing things. It's still brutal, of course, but rule changes in recent seasons have favored protecting offensive players, unlike in the past. Running backs are also finding a path to longer careers thanks to medical advances and 21st-century training regimens. Put everything together, and the running backs have regained some of the ground they lost to the men who hand them the ball. Go down the list of runners now leading their teams, and it has the makings of some type of dystopian nightmare for linebackers: Gurley, Bell, Elliott, Johnson, Alvin Kamara, Barkley, Kansas City's Kareem Hunt, Gordon, Fournette, Freeman (watch out for those Freemans), Dalvin Cook in Minnesota and Derrick Henry in Tennessee. It's been a long time since running backs had this much star power. The running back renaissance is here. Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.<doc-sep>Running backs have historically earned less on average because of the perception that their NFL careers were shorter and injury risk higher. But Gurley's historic extension sets a new standard for RBs. Of the 20 highest-paid offensive players in the NFL in terms of practical guaranteed money, the first 11 are quarterbacks. In total, fourteen of the top 20 throw passes for a living. So on Tuesday, when Rams star Todd Gurley inked a four-year, $60-million extension, which will keep him in Los Angeles through a running back’s prime years and allow him a chance at a third contract before 30, it was more than just an aggressive business move from a franchise trying to gauge an unknown market. It was a recognition that such a market existed in the first place. With his new extension, Gurley is in 17th place, on par with Ryan Tannehill and just ahead of Joe Flacco. The only non-quarterbacks ahead of him? Mike Evans, Brandin Cooks, DeAndre Hopkins, Jarvis Landry and Julio Jones. In the shadow of a broken-down Le’Veon Bell deal, Gurley earned $45 million in guaranteed money, and while the practicality of that guaranteed money remains to be seen, the early indication is that Gurley will receive more in guarantees than any running back in NFL history. Bell, who reportedly turned down $33 million in guarantees a week ago, Tweeted moments after the Gurley deal was announced: Yes and no. For years, NFL general managers have been able to squeeze value out of certain positions simply by stuffing unique players onto prix fixe menus. Slot receivers earn less than outside receivers. Nickel corners earn less than outside corners. Guards earn less than centers, who earn less than right tackles who earn less than left tackles. Running backs, who, before Tuesday, earned less than tight ends and wide receivers on average, often got the worst end of the deal. Because of the physical nature of the position and the blocking responsibilities, their careers are shorter and the inherent risk of a long-term deal is greater. However Bell, Gurley, David Johnson, Christian McCaffrey and Ezekiel Elliott are not true running backs. They’re physical and, for the most part, are big enough to sustain hits from the modern defender. They’re also catching a lot of passes and not leaving the field. Gurley was 33rd in receptions and 36th in receiving yards in 2017, and he had as many touchdown catches as Larry Fitzgerald, Keenan Allen and Jordy Nelson. Why The Timing Isn't Right For an Aaron Rodgers Contract Extension The deal could force some interesting long-term cap planning for teams like the Giants, Panthers, Cowboys and Bengals (Joe Mixon). Before long, the franchise tag number for a running back ($9.63 million for first-time tagged players in 2018) could slowly drift out of the realm of practicality. Teams with versatile all-pro backs will have to budget them in just behind, or maybe on par with their No. 1 wide receiver. Of course, many teams aren’t going to have to worry because of the scarcity of these players. Gurley has been a revelation not only because of his pass-catching ability and broken tackles, but because of his good health. By the time Bell was Gurley’s age, he’d already lost almost an entire season’s worth of games to an MCL injury and a suspension. All attention may shift next to Johnson, though the Cardinals dual-threat star doesn’t have age (26), injury history (15 games lost in 2017) or original draft position leverage (Round 3, pick 86) on his side. Maybe the fight for a fair market deal gets a little easier, though. For one NFL news cycle, running backs aren’t ending the day wondering why they bothered to play running back in the first place.<doc-sep>
For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, an NFL running back is getting paid. On Tuesday, the Rams and Todd Gurley agreed to a four-year contract extension with $45 million guaranteed, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The deal ultimately could be worth up to $60 million, and would keep the AP Offensive Player of the Year in Los Angeles through the 2023 season. Gurley’s new deal doesn’t just reset the going rate in the running back market—it obliterates it. For years now, running backs have failed to ink large-money contracts. Before Tuesday, the three running backs with the most money guaranteed at signing were all on rookie deals. Rookie-contract players also made up six of the top 10 by that metric, and as Pro Football Focus’s Mike Renner pointed out in April, based on the average of the top-10 cap hits at a given position, only kickers and punters have a lower cap hit than running backs. (This is the part where we need to take a breather and soak in the fact Saquon Barkley, who has never set foot on an NFL field, had the highest guaranteed money for a running back before Tuesday. There is no better representation of how much the value of running backs has—had?— cratered than that.) Since roughly 2011, when the Vikings gave Adrian Peterson a $100 million deal with $36 million guaranteed, there just hasn’t been a market for veteran backs. Their relatively short careers ensure that they play out many of their best years on rookie deals, and by the time they come up for an extension, teams are hesitant to make big, long-term offers to backs who are now aging. Gurley will be just 24 this season, so age isn’t an issue yet, but this deal is surprising because the Rams still had two years of team control left on his rookie contract. Gurley’s new contract value is nearly $20 million higher than the next-highest-paid rusher (Devonta Freeman, at $41.25 million) and his guaranteed money is nearly $15 million higher than the next-highest (Barkley, at $31.2 million). This is a huge boon for the running back market, and it has a massive, immediate impact on other top running backs with negotiations either happening now or coming up—that includes Le’Veon Bell, Ezekiel Elliott, David Johnson, and Melvin Gordon. For Bell in particular, this deal is huge: He wasn’t able to come to terms on a larger deal with the Steelers this offseason after the franchise offered him a deal with only $10 million guaranteed and $33 million in a “rolling guaranteed” structure that … doesn’t sound like it’s actually guaranteed. This season he’ll play on the franchise tag for a second consecutive year, and Gurley’s deal will serve as a benchmark for him in 2019. This fact has not been lost on Bell: lol and ppl thought I was trippin?... — Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) July 24, 2018 Though this improves the earning power of top running backs, it still doesn’t catch the position up with the rest of the league’s skill positions. Just look at Gurley’s teammate Brandin Cooks: The Rams re-signed Cooks last week to a $16 million-per-year deal, while Gurley just got $15 million per year. Yet Gurley should be more valuable than Cooks by almost any metric: He’s a year younger, he’s a better player at his position, he actually played with L.A. last season, and he had nearly double the yards from scrimmage last year than Cooks did. And Gurley isn’t strictly a runner—his 788 receiving yards last season ranked second to Alvin Kamara among running backs—which helps explain why he got such an earth-shattering deal. But he’s still a rusher by trade, and even with this deal, it’s clear that NFL teams value pass catching above rushing. Earlier in July, Gurley suggested that NFL players should receive fully guaranteed contracts (like NBA players) and that the NFLPA should consider a “lockout” in a couple of years when the current CBA ends. A few days after suggesting that, he clarified his meaning with the Los Angeles Times: “Us NFL players, we’re just mad about NBA contracts right now, that’s all,” he said. “I just want like $80 million. Those guys are getting like $150 [million]. It’s crazy.