Fansided

Marshawn Lynch plans to retire after disappointing 2015

By Parker Hurley

Nov 22, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch (24) sits on the bench during the fourth quarter of a 29-13 Seattle victory against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 22, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch (24) sits on the bench during the fourth quarter of a 29-13 Seattle victory against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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After a 2015 season that didn’t live up to expectations, Seahawks star running back Marshawn Lynch is reportedly leaning towards retirement.

On the morning of the Super Bowl the Seattle Seahawks, who are not in it for the first time in two years are still making headlines. Reports surfaced that Marshawn Lynch is telling friends and teammates that 2015 was his last year and that he will retire.

At age 29 Lynch posted the worst year of his career. He missed nine regular season games in 2015 due to an abdomen injury and also missed a playoff game. Lynch came back for the NFC divisional round but only saw 6 carries for 20 yards and proved to be a non-factor after his eight-week layoff. The Seahawks went 7-2 without Lynch plus the playoff win in the Wild Card round at Minnesota, in which the Seahawks got 70 yards rushing out of Christine Michael.

Along with Michael, the Hawks bring back Thomas Rawls who in his rookie year posted 830 yards and four touchdowns on 147 attempts, a 5.6 yards per attempt mark. In comparison Lynch only ran for 417 yards on 111 carries giving him a 3.8 yards per attempt rate essentially showing that the rookie was as valuable if not more valuable to the Seahawks this season. For Lynch to come out of 2015 with career lows in carries, yards, yards per attempt, receptions, receiving yards as well as games started and to see a rookie potentially pushing him out it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Lynch would make this decision.

There were already rumors flying that the Seahawks would look to cut Lynch this offseason to save six million dollars towards the salary cap and move forward with Rawls anyways. While reports are out that teammates are looking to convince Lynch to come back for another season, the Seahawks front office may have no problem letting him go as they will clear his 11 million dollars in cap space. If they felt they were moving forward with Rawls anyways it becomes an actual gain for the Seahawks and gives them a chance to make a move with the extra money in free agency.

For Lynch, it would be easy to understand that he wouldn’t like to be cut, wouldn’t want to join another team and just wouldn’t want to push his body any further. While this is a loss of one of the more entertaining players of the past five seasons, it could easily be stated that neither Lynch nor the Seahawks will have any regrets with this about this decision.

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