Atlanta Falcons: Time for Todd Gurley to retire

The Atlanta Falcons had high hopes in 2020 for Todd Gurley.

Many Atlanta Falcons fans were excited to see running back Todd Gurley come to Atlanta last offseason. There were many hopes that he could turnaround a terrible run game attack for a franchise that hadn’t had one in several years.

Instead, he started out hot and flamed like a fire in a hurricane.

After his 121-yard rushing game against the Panthers in Week 5, Gurley cracked 50 yards just two more times all season. In his final six games of 2020, he never carried the ball more than eight times and never had more than 26 yards rushing, and didn’t have a touchdown either.

For the first time since the 2016 NFL season, he didn’t record a single receiving touchdown either. To say he was a major $5 million disappointment, would be a major understatement.

Time for Todd Gurley to retire.

Todd Gurley in college was unstoppable. He carried UGA during some very mediocre quarterback play and kept them in the thick of the SEC East.

He also had a couple elite NFL seasons and was a viable MVP candidate the year he helped lead the Rams to the Super Bowl. However, those days are long gone. The degenerative knee issues that had NFL teams questioning his long-term viability coming out of college have effectively ended his NFL career.

2020 was supposed to be a prove-it year for Gurley and the Atlanta Falcons were supposed to be the benefactor of that. Instead, the Falcons went 4-12 and Gurley showed why NFL teams had no interest in him after the Rams moved on last March.

At this point, Gurley has to think about his long-term health and whether trying to play another NFL season will be worth potentially giving up his ability to be healthy 10-15 years from now. Is trying to prove you can still play the game going to be worth the myriad of knee surgeries he will need as he gets older?

It is always hard to walk away from the game but every athlete has to face that question sooner than later and it is time that Gurley hangs it up before he completely embarrasses himself and allows someone else to make that decision for him.

You cannot fault former Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff for trying to spark the offense but like nearly every other free agent decision he made, this one ended in flames for not just the team but also the player.