Medical exam another hurdle for Gurley
The most important moment of Todd Gurley’s pre-draft journey has nearly arrived.
After months of being a spectator in so many key aspects of the NFL’s exhaustive interview process, he finally will hop onto a medical examination table Friday in Indianapolis to let dozens of doctors grab at his leg during the league’s official medical recheck. It will be the first time team physicians will be able to evaluate Gurley’s surgically repaired left knee after his doctor — orthopedist James Andrews — decided he wasn’t ready to be assessed at the scouting combine in February.
Gurley, who also will have a magnetic resonance imaging exam at the recheck, had surgery in November after a torn anterior cruciate ligament ended his final season at the University of Georgia.
“I would guess that anybody that has him high on their board is going to have their doctor there,” said former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian, now an analyst with ESPN. “I’m sure everybody will be scrutinizing the results. They’ll all make their own decisions as to how far along the timeline he is. That decision, in my experience, rests with the docs.”
If the exams show that Gurley is on schedule, there is an excellent chance he will be the first running back selected in the draft this month. But should the recheck reveal any sort of unexpected damage or hints of a degenerative disease, his stock could tumble.
Gurley has visited the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers and Detroit Lions, but his physical progress has remained a mystery. He couldn’t participate in on-field drills at the combine and remained sidelined during Georgia’s March 18 pro day.
Andrews’ prognosis for Gurley’s recovery was six to nine months, meaning he’d be on the field in time for the NFL’s regular-season opener in September.
Still, this spring has been an exercise in patience.
“You’re happy for the guys who are out there competing, but at the end of the day you want to see yourself competing with those guys,” Gurley said at the combine, “just going out there, doing the workouts and showing the coaches what you can do.”
Marcus Lattimore can sympathize with any frustration or impatience Gurley might be feeling.
In 2012, Lattimore suffered a gruesome injury — he tore every knee ligament as well as his calf and hamstring muscles — during his final season at the University of South Carolina. He went from Heisman Trophy candidate and virtual first-round lock to a major NFL question mark.
“It was stressful, and it was tough seeing all the other guys do their pro days and do the combine,” Lattimore told USA TODAY Sports.
The San Francisco 49ers took a shot on Lattimore in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, but he never played a down in the NFL.
The key for Gurley, Lattimore said, is to make sure he and his agent keep teams completely in the loop about his recovery. Even if he can’t run the 40 or go through position drills, there are other ways to show his progress.
“Send out film of you doing single-leg squats, doing some- thing — jogging, anything. Just put it in the teams’ minds that you can overcome this and make sure that there is nothing outside that can hurt your draft stock,” Lattimore said.
There are more than enough success stories to suggest Gurley could become a star.
Despite being drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills, Willis McGahee sat out his rookie year in 2003 after being injured in his final college game. He’d go on to rush for more than 8,000 career yards.
Frank Gore suffered two torn ACLs in college but is heading into his 11th NFL season with 11,073 rushing yards, more than any active player except Steven Jackson.
Gurley also can refer to recent examples of NFL players returning in less than nine months from ACL reconstruction, including 2012 MVP Adrian Peterson.
“It’s a major surgery, but it’s not as devastating as you’d think. Mentally, you take it harder than it really is, in my opinion,” Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller, a Pro Bowler in 2014 despite tearing his ACL in 2013, told USA TODAY Sports.
“It is scary. You think about your career and your livelihood and all the things you want to accomplish. You want to put yourself in a great situation to achieve all those goals. ACL surgery doesn’t increase the odds of getting all that stuff. But once you get it out of the way and have the right mind-set, you can do it.”