Turns out, Todd Gurley and the Rams did have something to talk about.

In a wildly dramatic swing, Gurley went from NFL offensive player of the year (2017) to $57 million man (2018) to afterthought (2019) to … gone. The Rams on Thursday cut Gurley, ending a five-season run that included extraordinary highs and lows.

The Rams will move forward, likely with 2019 third-round draft pick Darrell Henderson given a chance to take the lead role at running back. Malcolm Brown, Gurley’s understudy since 2015, also factors in. An addition likely will come through the draft. But at the moment, that seems like minutiae. Let’s not lose sight of the big picture. What in the world happened here?

Todd Gurley is gone. Not long ago, he wore an “L.A.” hat in a national TV ad campaign and pretended to take a bite of a digitized burger. He had the look, the flash — he could hurdle defenders! — and the on-field production to be Southern California’s next big sporting star.

What went wrong? The clear pivot point is Dec. 16, 2018, the day the Rams played the Philadelphia Eagles and something happened to Gurley’s left knee. Gurley played 19 more games with the Rams and topped 100 rushing yards only once. A complete explanation was never provided.

This complicated situation likely goes beyond Gurley’s balky knee and suggests a deeper disconnect between Gurley and the Rams. The team needs a clear, smooth path forward when it comes to revitalizing its run game in 2020, and the road with Gurley was increasingly dotted with potholes, too much uncertainty and too many mixed messages. The Rams had a problem, and the only thing worse than a problem is doubling down on it. They didn’t do that, at least.

There simply were too many questions. How healthy is Gurley’s knee? Is there a degenerative condition? Is he capable of carrying the ball 18 to 20 times, every game for a full season, if needed? Was he happy with the team? All of these questions (and others) were repeatedly asked over a 16-month period, and no definitive answers were ever obtained. This situation couldn’t continue in 2020. What happened in 2019 didn’t work, on or off the field, and a change was needed.

Plus, the Rams were motivated to make a move Thursday. Gurley would have received a $10 million bonus if he stayed on the roster after 1 p.m. Pacific. It’s going to take a while to sort out the full salary-cap ramifications, but the Rams have designated Gurley for a “post-June 1” release, which means they can spread out some of his salary-cap liability over the next two seasons and recoup some cap space now. The Rams also saved $5 million when they cut linebacker Clay Matthews on Thursday.

The Rams also were open to trading Gurley but, not surprisingly — given his contract and uncertainty with his knee — they could not generate a market. So the Rams did what they felt they needed to do, even knowing they would take a salary-cap hit and expose themselves to public ridicule.

What was the other option at this point? If the Rams were going to keep Gurley, they needed a reasonable path forward. I wrote at the end of last season that the Rams needed to either recommit to Gurley or trade him. Sitting on their roster was a running back who appeared diminished in 2019, even during his most productive games, who is just starting a bloated four-year, $57 million contract extension and who, at least based on public appearances, didn’t seem bothered by much of it.

That part is tougher to quantify, but let’s just examine the past month. After an objectively bad statistical season from Gurley — assign the blame in any direction, it doesn’t matter — coach Sean McVay said at the combine that he wanted to sit down with Gurley and talk about everything and, more importantly, to listen to Gurley.

Maybe it was a bit corny, particularly if — as now seems likely — the Rams already had decided to part with Gurley before McVay spoke. Nonetheless, it was an outstretched hand, at least publicly.

Two weekends ago, I talked to Gurley when he made a paid appearance at an esports event. I didn’t know what to expect. Gurley is never rude, but anyone who watched one of his interviews knows, he’s not exactly verbose. His weekly media sessions often were brief, light on details and heavy on sarcasm, and I often skipped them. He seemingly didn’t really want to be there and I didn’t hold that against him.

At the esports event, Gurley could not have been more affable. We talked about gaming and joked about the days of dial-up internet. He spoke at length about his offseason plans and the then-proposed new collective bargaining agreement. Then I asked him about McVay’s comments about a meeting — and he laughed as I asked the question. I’m still not sure why. I asked, but he just encouraged me to ask my question, and there really was no way to represent that exchange in a Q&A format.

Gurley answered the question, but left the distinct impression that he wouldn’t be talking to McVay unless his phone rang.

“I’m more of a guy where, if there ain’t nothing to talk about, then there ain’t nothing to talk about,” Gurley said. “But if we’ve got something to talk about, then we can talk. That’s kind of my perspective. Coach got my number. Coach got my number.”

Gurley had nothing to discuss? No concerns about his usage in 2019, or the plans for 2020? Nothing about his new offensive coordinator or position coach? Nothing about how the Rams might approach their offensive line? Nothing about his health? Nothing?

It’s possible, I now realize, that at the time of our interview, Gurley already had been informed that his days with the Rams were numbered. That would explain his nonchalance toward talking with McVay.

Even so, the answer intrigued me, so I wanted to dive a little deeper. I asked Gurley if he had started thinking about 2020, if he felt motivated or excited about the opportunity to get back on the field and improve upon what happened in 2019. To say his response was tepid would be an understatement.

“I don’t really have time to think about a lot of stuff,” Gurley said, “or just sit down and think about the season. But I’m always visualizing and thinking about the next step.”

Gurley said he’d been excited about the XFL, which was fine. He’s friends with Nelson Spruce, who played for the Los Angeles Wildcats, so he was being supportive. But … that’s it? That’s all Gurley had on his mind about football? It seemed clear then, and even more clear now, that something just wasn’t right when it came to Gurley and his relationship with the Rams.

It’s going to take more time to sort all this out. Nobody necessarily did anything wrong. Gurley isn’t obligated to publicly discuss his health. The Rams would have been silly, from a strategic standpoint, to tell the world exactly what was happening with Gurley and exactly how they would be able to use him. Everyone wanted answers, but they weren’t owed.

To Gurley’s credit, and to the Rams’ credit, neither side publicly trashed the other. This situation could have been very ugly. It was confusing and frustrating, but it never turned ugly. There’s something to be said for that.

What the lack of information created, though, was a vacuum filled by speculation and angst. Gurley’s usage and production dropped dramatically in the first half of the 2019 season, and McVay tried his best, every week, to frame it in the context of game situations, the Rams’ other offensive shortcomings and his own failings as a play-caller.

Some of it made perfect sense, but much of it did not. A lot of teams have offensive line issues and/or trouble moving the ball on first down. None of them turn away from a (presumably healthy) player capable of 2,000 yards, the way the Rams turned away from Gurley. It seemed clear that McVay was coaching with one hand tied behind his back, but his shoulder-the-blame ethos prevented him from saying so.

Gurley, meanwhile, sulked through his weekly news conferences and gave little insight into his health, his usage, his production, the Rams’ offense or pretty much anything else. Again, that’s fine. Some guys don’t like standing at podiums and talking, and there’s no judgment involved there.

But let’s go back to one of Gurley’s last media availability sessions, in December. Gurley had just come off a 23-carry, 79-yard effort against Seattle, which by 2019 standards qualified as good, and included a stiff-arm of a defender on the way to the end zone for a touchdown run.

Goff referred to the run as “vintage” Gurley, but Gurley later seemed to take offense and said it made it sound “like I suck and then made a good play.”

McVay joked that the increase in Gurley’s usage was the result of “me not being an idiot.” Gurley responded with, “He said it, I didn’t. That’s all I’ve got to say. I don’t have anything else to say.”

Gurley smiled and seemed to be joking, but how much?

Cutting Gurley was a shocking move. Clearly, when the Rams re-signed Gurley in July 2018, less than six months after he won NFL offensive player of the year honors, they believed the then-24-year-old running back had a very bright future. That changed quickly, and the flash-bang takeaway is that the Rams ended up being victims of their own mismanagement.

It’s certainly fair to say that giving big second-contract money to any running back is a major error, but in Gurley’s case, the landscape also changed quickly. The only thing the Rams could do about Gurley’s bloated contract was get out of it, and that’s what they did Thursday.

(Photo of Todd Gurley: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)