Todd Gurley’s trainer confirms “arthritic component to his knee”

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It doesn’t take a medical degree to know something was wrong with Todd Gurley late last year (Source: My two eyes).

But after months of Gurley and the Rams downplaying his situation, even his personal trainer acknowledges that his knee is something that has to be monitored and accounted for.

Gurley’s personal trainer Travelle Gaines told Dave Richard of CBSSports.com that the knee issue was real, but insisted it shouldn’t bother him this season.

“Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it’s a shoulder, a knee, an ankle,” Gaines said. “He’s now at the year-five mark, all we’re doing is managing that. If we can pound him less in the offseason while keeping his weight down, working on his strength, working on his agility in short areas, that’s going to give him a better chance to be healthy Weeks 14 through 17 when they really count.”

Gurley recently acknowledged it was a “small” problem, and Gaines said he didn’t think it would limit his workload this year, despite the addition of Darrell Henderson in the third round.

“It’s never been told to me that there’s a plan to decrease his workload come Week One,” Gaines said. “At the end of the day, you need solid running backs, and they grabbed a home-run running back in the third round. . . . If you watched the games last year, Todd typically sat out two to three series last year. I don’t see anything changing with that, so you need a back who can catch, and I believe Darrell averaged around 9.0 yards per carry, a home-run type guy.”

Of course, there’s also no reason for Gaines to know what the Rams’ plan for Gurley is, since he doesn’t work for them. But he acknowledged that he’s trying to get Gurley a little lighter this offseason, but in an effort to increase his speed, not to take pressure off the knee.

“It was a collective decision for him to play a little lighter this year, not because of injuries, just because I just feel he’s one of the faster players in the league,” Gaines said. “He doesn’t have to play at 224 — 218 is only six pounds less, so I wanted to decrease his body fat a little bit and get him to the point where he’s a tad smaller so he can be a tad faster and a little bit bigger from a lean muscle mass standpoint. He’s going from basically 10 percent body fat to 7 percent body fat.”

Gurley hasn’t participated in any of the Rams offseason work or minicamp, giving the appearance he’s clearly being saved for something. Coach Sean McVay has said he anticipates Gurley being a participant in training camp.