Ex-Rams Blocker Says Todd Gurley is on Adrian Peterson’s Level

The Todd Gurley to the Atlanta Falcons hype is far from over. Gurley’s former Los Angeles Rams teammate and blocker, John Sullivan had strong praise for Atlanta’s newly acquired running back.

Throughout his 10 year NFL career, Sullivan has blocked for Adrian Peterson and Gurley. Sullivan compared the two running backs.

“He’s one of if not the best skill-position player I’ve ever played with in my career,” Sullivan told ESPN’s, Vaughn McClure. “He’s a different running back than Adrian was — but on that same level. Todd is a Hall of Fame-type talent. The Falcons are lucky to have him.”

Pretty cool thing to say about a guy with such a “bad knee” and coming from an NFL veteran.

‘He’s a Monster’

In his five-year NFL career, Gurley has accumulated 7,694 combined rushing and receiving yards.

Sullivan, who was the Rams’ starting center for 31 games had a front-row seat watching Gurley dominate in the 2017 season. Gurley led the league that year with a total of 2,093 yards and 19 total touchdowns on 343 touches.

“You can basically put on any game in 2017,” Sullivan said. “Put on the Tennessee game in 2017, or put on the second Seattle game in 2017, and you’ll see what Todd can do. He’s a monster.”

In just those two games combined, Gurley had six total touchdowns, 456 yards from scrimmage and 19 first downs on 56 touches.

Sullivan is confident that Gurley will make an impact in Atlanta on and off of the field.

“He’s an awesome guy, and he’s a great teammate,” Sullivan said. “Just a great all-around player and person.”

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Falcons GM Confident in Gurley’s Health

The two-time All-Pro signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with the Falcons but still has his physical to pass. Falcons general manager, Thomas Dimitroff expressed no worries about Gurley passing the exam regardless of his knee issues.

“We looked closely at it,” Dimitroff said. “We have language in our contracts that are going to protect us and the player. If the player comes in and has an issue that he might not pass a physical, then that’s something that we’ll address then. We’re not looking at it that way [of Gurley possibly failing the physical]. In our mind, we’re thinking about Todd Gurley coming in … he really takes care of his body well and he’ll continue to work on it.”

Dimitroff also made it clear that the team won’t rely solely on Gurley to make plays, but he will be the starter.

“I think Todd is explosive; I think Todd can still tote the rock very, very well and he’s going to be a big-time playmaker,” Dimitroff said. “I think we have a group of running backs that can contribute. I’m a big believer that it’s not just about one person running all the runs, of course. We’re a big mix-up team. We think that’s a very important part of making sure that we rotate our guys through there.

It’s not meaning that we won’t look for another back in the draft that potentially has speed. That’s something we’ll continue to look at. But we feel really good about the group of running backs we have, with Todd Gurley at the front of the line.”

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