Retirement Is The Smartest Move For Seattle Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch

The season is over for the Seattle Seahawks, and with it comes the beginning of the who-stays-and-who-leaves game.  Perhaps the biggest question is the immediate future of star running back Marshawn Lynch. In a recent interview, team GM Scott Schneider seems to think Lynch is serious about retiring, and will likely do so.

It’s probably not what Seahawks fans want to hear, but retiring is probably the smartest move Lynch can make.

From the Seahawks’ perspective, Lynch retiring really doesn’t affect them much. Between the rise of Thomas Rawls and the rejuvenated Christine Michael, the Seahawks’ ground game looks to be solid for the next few years. Plus, the Seahawks would be off the hook for Lynch’s 11.5 million salary. He’s an expensive luxury that they should do just fine without.

On the Lynch side, he’s 30 years old — the hot number that running backs supposedly start tailing off at, and his body has taken a beating.  A “beating” is probably putting it mildly; the guy runs like a bat out of hell and would put his shoulder into a brick wall if it meant getting another two yards. It’s the way he’s been his whole career.  You have to imagine all that has to take a toll on him, even if it doesn’t show.

Plus, with his age and the nature of his position in the game, he’s not getting another big contract from anyone else. Running backs are almost a dime a dozen unless you’re some athletic freak like Adrian Peterson or Todd Gurley. For Lynch, he’d have to up his roots in Seattle, move to some other part of the country, and for what? Some lowball contract from a team that’s most likely further away from a championship than Seattle?

In the grand scheme of things Lynch still has a lot of life to look forward to, and beating himself in the ground for relative peanuts with some new team doesn’t sound all that hot. I suppose it would really, truly depend on if a contender wanted him and what their offer was, but of the ones that are out there, none look likely to be in his market.

Lynch got his Super Bowl ring in 2013. He got his big contract and he earned every penny of it. Unless Seattle is willing to keep him, start him and pay him that $11.5 million, it’s better that Lynch walks away now.  He’ll have his health, a fat bank account and the freedom to do pretty much anything he wants to do next. That sounds pretty good to me.