Marshawn Lynch is back with the Seahawks. Now what?

Marshawn Lynch’s return to Seattle has all the prodigal ingredients of an NFL feel-good story. Now, Lynch has to write it.

The last time Marshawn Lynch suited up for the Seahawks, it was January 17, 2016, and he gained 20 yards on six carries in a 31-24 playoff loss to the Panthers. It was an ignominious way for a franchise legend to leave — Lynch had missed 10 games in the regular season due to injuries, and he announced his first retirement soon after. Lynch came back to the NFL in 2017 to play for his hometown Raiders, for whom he gained 1,267 yards and scored 10 rushing touchdowns on 297 carries over the 2017 season and six games into the 2018 season before a groin injury ended his career again.

Or, so we thought.

With their top three running backs — Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny, and C.J. Prosise — injured, and a Week 17 game against the 49ers for all the marbles in the NFC West on the line, the Seahawks have re-signed Lynch to a contract through the end of the regular season and as far as they can go in the playoffs, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

This wasn’t a complete surprise. As Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported, Lynch returned to the Seahawks’ facility a couple of weeks ago, following Penny’s season-ending ACL injury on December 8 against the Rams. Four days later, Lynch and head coach Pete Carroll were talking again.

When Carson suffered a fractured hip and Prosise broke his arm against the Cardinals on Sunday, the move became academic. Seattle also re-signed Robert Turbin, who played for the Seahawks from 2012-2014 and hasn’t been on a roster since the Colts waived him in November of 2018.

But Lynch is the big story here.

Originally selected by the Bills with the 12th overall pick in the 2007 draft out of Cal, Lynch was traded to Seattle three games into the 2010 season for a 2011 fourth-round pick and a 2012 fifth-round pick. That turned into perhaps the best deal the Seahawks have made in the Carroll era. Lynch gained 6,347 yards and scored 57 rushing touchdowns on 1,457 carries for Seattle over six years, and he also gave a young team under construction a sense of toughness and consistency when it was absolutely needed. His 67-yard “Beastquake” touchdown run against the Saints in the 2010 playoffs is still the highlight by which all other Seahawks highlights are measured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfdJqpbUPIE&feature=emb_err_watch_on_yt

It’s a great story, and when Lynch runs out of the tunnel at Seattle’s CenturyLink field in front of over 68,000 well-oiled fans, there might be another Beastquake before the game even starts. But what then? Lynch hasn’t carried a ball in an NFL game since Week 6 of the 2018 season, when he gained 45 yards on 13 carries and added 14 yards on three receptions against Seattle in a 27-3 loss for the Raiders.

Lynch’s most explosive play on the day was this 13-yard run…

…but there were more busted plays — three different runs for negative yardage.

So, we don’t know what we’ll get after kickoff, when the good feelings about Lynch’s return are still at their height, and the man has to work through San Francisco’s hyper-fast, but vulnerable, run defense.

To his credit, Lynch has been doing all he can to turn back the hands of time. Tareq Azim, Lynch’s long-time performance coach, told Pelissero that he and Lynch had 16 workout sessions over approximately eight days to get Lynch ready once again for the rigors of the NFL.

“The one thing I can tell you is you can be 100 percent certain that he’s well aware of what his body can and can’t do,” Azim told Pelissero. “He’s made a choice to contribute to a team and a city that’s given him a lot.”

So maybe, just maybe, there’s enough life left in the old dog for just enough tricks to get Seattle back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the end of the 2014 season.

A hot tip for Pete Carroll if this happens: Any play at the opponents’ one-yard line? You know who to give the ball to this time around, Coach.