Anti-Marshawn Lynch conspiracy behind play call?

Breathed to life by a distraught Seattle Seahawks player after a gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss, the anti-Marshawn Lynch conspiracy theories are now a thing.

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell decided to pass on second-and-1 from the New England Patriots’ 1-yard line and 26 seconds to go in Super Bowl XLIX Sunday night.

After the game, one player broached a conspiracy theory of the highest order: That Carroll was somehow attempting to make Russell Wilson, rather than Marshawn Lynch, the hero.

“That’s what it looked like,” the unnamed player said, as reported by NFL Media’s Michael Silver.

Other reporters in the Seattle locker room after the game did seem taken aback by the vehemence of the players questioning the fateful play call.

But here’s the thing, and there’s really no two ways about it: To paraphrase the immortal words of Herm Edwards, back in his New York Jets coaching days, “You’re paid to win the game.”

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That’s what coaches get paid to do. Win the game.

Coaches who lose don’t get paid. They get fired.

Question the logic of the call. Wonder until the end of days why Lynch wasn’t handed the ball, particularly after carrying a couple of guys four yards to get the ball to within three feet of the game-winning score.

But don’t think that Carroll had any other agenda than trying to outthink Bill Belichick with that final play call.

Think about it. What does it behoove Carroll to make his quarterback an even bigger media darling than he already is?

Wilson is about to get a healthy—really, really healthy—pay raise now that his rookie contract has expired. That is “healthy,” as in “highest paid player in the league,” according to NFL Media’s Chris Wesseling.

So Carroll is going to intentionally call a play destined to make Wilson’s value skyrocket just a little bit more?

Lynch is also going into free agency, but his situation is more complicated. Lynch is entering that danger zone for running backs.

He’ll be 29 in April. For most running backs, that is roughly equivalent to being 96 in regular-people years. He’s taken the pounding of 2,033 regular season carries, 187 postseason runs and 249 receptions.

That’s not even getting into the countless blitz pickups—invoking the all contact has a price theory—and while Lynch produced at a terrific 4.7-yards per carry clip in 2014, a reasonable person has to ask how much more a runner that physical, that punishing can have left in the tank.

Emmett Smith, Curtis Martin and Eric Dickerson averaged 4.2 yards a carry in his age 29 season. Walter Payton’s average was 4.0. LaDainian Tomlinson was at 3.8.

The player Lynch is often compared to, Hall of Famer Earl Campbell, was down to 3.2 yards a pop by age 29.

The outliers among the all-time rushing leaders, as far as their production at age 29, are Jim Brown (5.3 yards per carry and early retirement after that season), Jerome Bettis (4.8 yards per carry, cratering to 3.6, 3.3, 3.8 and 3.3 the rest of his career) and Tony Dorsett (4.6 before falling off to 3.9 at age 30).

This is America—you have the right to believe any theory you choose.

But if you believe Pete Carroll—on the cusp of joining the pantheon of NFL coaches with back-to-back Super Bowl titles—was thinking about whether or not he wanted Russell Wilson to be the hero instead of Marshawn Lynch, you have the ability to invoke another one of your rights.

That would be the right to be a complete and utter buffoon and to be subject to random checks to see if you do, in fact, wear a tinfoil hat.

Statistical information from pro-football reference.com.

H/T Bleacher Report

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