Todd Gurley never had a true running partner during

THOUSAND OAKS Deandre Baker Jersey , Calif. (AP) — The superstar running back took most of the carries and grinded out most of the tough yards while his backups played only sparingly.When he suited up with C.J. Anderson for the first time last weekend during the Rams’ divisional playoff win over Dallas, Gurley truly shared the big carries for one of the first times in his NFL career.As the New Orleans Saints have already noticed, the tandem was pretty much unstoppable.“I guess it was a good thing I got hurt,” Gurley said with a laugh.Gurley’s knee injury last month led the Rams to sign Anderson, a six-year veteran who had been released by three NFL teams in the previous eight months. Anderson hit the ground running with 299 yards in the Rams’ final two regular season victories while Gurley sat out.When Gurley and Anderson suited up together against the Cowboys, their contrasting styles and similar relentlessness made history. Anderson went for 123 yards and two touchdowns, while Gurley rushed for 115 yards and another score as they propelled the Rams to a franchise playoff-record 273 yards rushing and on to the NFC championship game on Sunday.The Saints have already watched film of this partnership’s debut, and they know what’s coming to the Superdome.“Being able to split time with (Anderson) and Gurley, it does good things for them,” Saints linebacker A.J. Klein said. “It gets Gurley some rest and gets him some carries, and vice versa. It keeps them fresh. And obviously you can tell when they’re running the ball, they’re not tired. They’re fresh and they’re running hard.”The Rams’ dynamic duo presents a remarkable contrast at the position.Gurley is a powerful, majestic runner capable of injuring would-be tacklers as easily as breaking past safeties for a length-of-the-field TD sprint.Anderson is 5-foot-8 and a self-described “fat kid running.” While he hits holes and linebackers ferociously, he isn’t planning to break away from any defensive backs anytime soon.“From the 40 in. That’s it,” he said Sunday when asked to imagine his longest possible TD run. “Can’t go 70. Todd can go 70, 80 if he wants to. Me http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-oshane-ximines-jersey , from the 40 in, man. When they say the 40 at the combine matters, that’s where it matters.”Gurley and Anderson present a stark contrast in running styles, but they already looked like good teammates against the Cowboys. Gurley and Anderson largely substituted themselves, each waving the other on or off the field, depending on whether they were tired, or felt they had the metaphorical hot hand.Anderson, who won a Super Bowl with the Broncos three years ago, still seems a bit surprised to be deep in the playoffs just a few weeks after he was unemployed. He understands his place in the Rams’ larger picture, and he willingly defers to Gurley.“Whatever Todd wanted to do, we were going to ride with anyway,” Anderson said of the substitution plan against Dallas. “If he wanted to play 98 percent of the snaps, we were going to let the man be the man. That’s why he’s one of the best backs in the league.“But I think him seeing the opportunity of being fresh and not taking as many hits and (not) having the workload on passing downs and run downs, I think that helps him. And vice versa for myself. I’ve been in a position where I was a starter and I was the same way, when I was in Denver. I’ve always told him, ‘You want to be fresh Julian Love Jersey ,’ and when you’re fresh, obviously more explosive runs for the both of us.”Gurley tore his knee ligament during his final season at Georgia, and his rookie season didn’t start until the Rams’ third game. Since then, he has been one of the NFL’s most durable backs, even without having a heavily used backup.Malcolm Brown joined the Rams with Gurley in 2015, and he has been Gurley’s primary backup during coach Sean McVay’s two-year tenure.Brown averaged 4.9 yards on 43 carries this season, matching Gurley’s per-carry average. But Brown has just 106 carries in the past two seasons to Gurley’s 535, and he went on injured reserve last month after he injured his collarbone, forcing the Rams to sign Anderson.Gurley had the ball on 74 percent of the Rams’ rushing plays in the 2016 season and 61 percent of the rushing plays in 2017. He carried the ball on 55 percent of LA’s 459 rushing plays this season while sitting out the final two games as Anderson ran wild.Gurley also points out the obvious: Even with this fascinating tailback tandem, the Rams run the ball well because of their powerful offensive line.“When we dominate at the line of scrimmage, nine times out of 10, we’re going to win,” Gurley said. “They always give the running backs the credit, but you see what those guys did. You see who led this team to a victory.” ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock were invited by Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis for an event in Las Vegas last week, a year before the team’s planned move to Sin City.The Raiders coach and general manager were set for a night on the town with their wives when those plans got altered with the news that the NFL’s most prolific receiver http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-darius-slayton-jersey , Antonio Brown, was available from Pittsburgh.Just 24 hours later, Mayock had completed his first major move since leaving his old role as television draft analyst to join an NFL front office and all those plans the Raiders had made were overturned.“The wild card was all of a sudden understanding that this guy might be available,” Mayock said this week. “That was the wild card. That was not in our free agent planning. When all of a sudden we realized we might have an opportunity to compete for his services, it changed everything.”The Raiders seemed poised for a rebuilding year after dealing away foundation pieces Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper last year in trades that netted three additional first-round picks the next two years. But the trade for Brown set them up to begin a spending spree that the Raiders hope can make them a contender in their final season in Oakland before the move to the desert.The Raiders also gave big-ticket deals to free agent tackle Trent Brown, safety Lamarcus Joyner and receiver Tyrell Williams and have committed more than $200 million in contracts just six months after trading Mack to Chicago because they didn’t want to give him a mega-contract as the highest-paid defensive player in football.“We’ve gotten better, we have some resources in the draft that can continue that process and as I’ve said all along, I don’t think you can rush this,” Gruden said. “You have to do what you deem is right. Players don’t become available all the time. You can’t make all the necessary improvements. It takes a little bit of time. But we’re confident that we’re heading in the right direction.”At least the Raiders now appear to be moving forward after taking a significant step back in Gruden’s first season. The team never recovered from the deal reached a week before the opener that sent Mack to the Bears for a package that included two first-round picks after he held out in search of a lucrative long-term contract the Raiders weren’t willing to offer.After starting last season 1-5, Gruden then sent Cooper to Dallas for another first-round pick and the rebuild was on. Oakland finished 4-12 just two seasons after breaking through with 12 wins and the team’s only playoff berth since 2002.Plenty of holes remain on the roster even after this week’s big spending spree with the most glaring being at pass rusher where Mack has yet to be replaced. Oakland has only one edge rusher under contract for 2019 in Arden Key, who had just one sack as a rookie.The Raiders finished with a league-low 13 sacks last season — 17 fewer than the next-worst team. Oakland still would like to find an edge rusher in free agency and also figures to target that position the draft when the team has picks No. 4, 24, 27 and 35 in the first two rounds.Mayock and Gruden also are looking for more help in the secondary, a playmaking linebacker, and possible help on offense at tight end, running back and guard.Filling all those holes in the draft and the end of free agency seems far-fetched Quinnen Williams Jersey , but getting a good start on the task will give the fans in Oakland a more desirable product to watch this season and create excitement in Las Vegas for the team’s planned arrival in 2020.“There is a lot of history here, so I definitely wanted to come and be a part of the history and I also wanted to be a part of new beginnings,” said Joyner, who was attracted by the move. “Hopefully we do a lot of great things this year and make Nevada even more excited to have us.”The Raiders hope the move to Las Vegas, where they will play in a fancy new stadium rather than the rundown Coliseum and have a more modern facility, will make the team a wanted destination for free agents in the future.A recent poll of agents by Sports Illustrated’s “The MMQB” listed Oakland as the second-least desirable team to join in free agency, ahead of only the Buffalo Bills, but that figures to change next season with the lack of a state tax in Nevada only making the location more desirable for players.But those factors won’t be as important in the future as Gruden and Mayock hitting on the draft picks to replenish the roster and make the team a contender once again.“I think the reason for me wanting to come here was to advance to Nevada with coach Gruden,” Joyner said. “I have come into contact with him throughout my career and he has always expressed to me how highly he thought of me as a player. When it comes to the state income taxes and stuff, that’s the kind of conversations you have with your wife and your kids, but that didn’t have anything to play into me wanting to join this great organization.”