I'm an LA native that went to Cal at the same time JG was playing, never had a football team to root for until he was drafted by the Rams, went all in as a fan during his run as QB, then adopted a second team after the Lions trade. I have watched almost all of his snaps in his collegiate and pro career.
The amount of negative baggage that sticks to him is really baffling to me. If you were to erase the names and rooting allegiances of fans and replace his name with the likes of Burrow or Lawrence and analyze the first 7 years of a career, the narrative would be completely different.
He had 7 horrendous games as a starter at the end of 2016 with the worst offensive coaching in the league, turned around the whole narrative in 2017 with McVay the next year as a Pro Bowler with top 8 QB play consistently throughout the season, led an historic offense in 2018 when his top two offensive weapons were healthy/available (Kupp injured late in the season, then Gurley basically cooked in the playoffs), went to New Orleans on the road in the championship game and gutted out an improbable win.
In 2019 Gurley was a borderline practice squad player due to injury and they had a bottom 3 offensive line, yet they managed a winning record barely missing the playoffs. In 2020 the line still sucked (I don't care what PFF says), and they made it to the playoffs, he won a playoff game with a surgically repaired thumb, but didn't have enough to win in Lambeau the following game.
Skipping over the past two years with the Lions, knowing what we know about how it has developed, the stigma attached to him is still insane to me.
The only reasons I can think of is because he doesn't "look" like a traditional beefy QB, and that the height of predictions and social media regarding quarterback drafting/busts was when sports Twitter became a thing in 2016. All of those narratives stuck and people can't get rid of them.
