Less than two years after signing one of the biggest contracts in NFL history for a running back, Todd Gurley could be on his way out of Los Angeles. 

Not only has Gurley's name been coming up in trade talks this week, but if the Rams can't find a trading partner, there's a very real chance that they could end up releasing their star running back. According to Mike Silver of NFL.com, the Rams "want to move forward without" Gurley and they'll consider cutting him if that's their only option. 

"The Rams have paid some other guys and want to move forward without him," Silver said of Gurley. "They may cut him if they can't find a trading partner when all is said and done."

Of course, that doesn't mean Gurley will get cut, and that's because there's still a chance that the running back could get dealt. Although the Rams weren't feeling too optimistic about the possibility of trading Gurley and his monstrous contract going into the offseason, they're apparently feeling slightly better about their chances after watching David Johnson get traded, and the team now seems to feel that there's a chance that someone might be willing to take on Gurley's deal. 

"The deal with Gurley is this: You saw the Cardinals get out of the David Johnson contract, and I think, with Todd Gurley, you could make a case still has a lot more left than David Johnson in the eyes of NFL coaches and talent evaluators," Silver said. 

Although the Cardinals were able to deal Johnson, who was the fourth-highest paid running back in the NFL, that involved Bill O'Brien agreeing to a ridiculously bad deal, and he's probably not going to be taking calls from the Rams after dealing for Johnson. Basically, it's most likely not going to be so easy for the Rams to find a taker on Gurley's contract. 

The Rams running back currently has four years left on an extension that he signed in 2018. If a team trades for Gurley, they'd have to be willing to take on a cap hit of $13 million in 2020, $9 million in 2021, $10 million in 2022 and $12.5 million in 2023, according to Spotrac. The one upside for a team that might trade for Gurley is that they could get out of the deal after just two seasons after paying him an average of $11.5 million per year, which some teams might be able to justify (If the Rams can't trade him and didn't release him, they'd have cap hits of $17.25 million in 2020, $13.2 million in 2021, $14.2 million in 2022 and $12.4 million in 2023. The Rams hits are slightly larger because they pro-rated his signing bonus over the life of the contract). 

If the Rams cut Gurley, they would take a $12.6 million dead cap hit, but would ultimately save roughly $4.65 million in cap space since Gurley's cap hit in 2020 is $17.25 million. 

So could a trade actually happen? 

The good news for the Rams is that if there's one offseason where a team might be open to taking on Gurley's contract, it's this one. The reason we could see it happen this offseason is because there's a lot of teams out there that could use a running back that also happen to be flush with cap space. One obvious option would be Tampa Bay. Not only do the Bucs need to add a running back for Tom Brady, but they have nearly $60 million in cap space to work with. The Dolphins could also be a possibility if they feel like they need to bolster the position even more after signing Jordan Howard. 

One other option that could end up being on the table for the Rams is asking Gurley to take a pay cut, but Gurley doesn't seem interested in going that route, so it's looking more and more likely that the running back will be traded or cut.