The last time we saw former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, he was handing out tequila shots in the “C” lot of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum ahead of the Raiders’ last home game in Oakland before their 2020 move to Las Vegas.
Marshawn Lynch handing out shots in C lot #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/s6uQANi0EP
— Ant🏁 (@AntHellaRaw) December 15, 2019
That was last week. This week, per Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, Lynch is on his way to Seattle to discuss the possibility of a reunion with the team he played with from 2010 through 2015.
“He’ll be flying in here this morning and we’re going to give him a really good chance to come back and play for us,” Carroll said during his weekly radio hit on Seattle’s ESPN radio station. “I’m fired up for it. He’s got some hoops he’s got to jump through here – physical and stuff like that – but he’s been working really hard. He’s really excited about the chance to do something and help out. I think it’s frickin’ great.”
It would absolutely be frickin’ great, if Lynch has anything left in the tank. He hasn’t played since Week 6 of the 2018 season, when he gained 45 yards on 13 carries for the Raiders against Seattle, adding in three catches for 14 yards. Lynch gained 376 yards and scored three rushing touchdowns on 90 carries before a groin injury ended his season, and, we thought, his career.
It was Lynch’s second retirement. He also hung ’em up after the 2015 season, when injuries also limited him to just six games. When he returned a year later, it was to play for his hometown team in Oakland.
It’s a longshot, but the Seahawks don’t have much going on at running back right now. Chris Carson, Rashad Penny, and C.J. Procise are all out with injuries, and Carroll’s team has a huge matchup with the 49ers this Sunday night for control of the NFC West and much of the NFC playoff picture.
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://youtu.be/ZfdJqpbUPIE
We’ll see if the reunion actually happens, but what a ride it would be if Lynch can return to the scene of so many of his classic moments for one last bunch of big plays.