RENTON — Marshawn Lynch is without a doubt a very important part of the Seattle Seahawks’ present. Whether he’s a part of their future, however, has been in doubt for a while now, especially since Lynch held out at the start of training camp looking for more money this season in large part because his camp realized there is a chance the Seahawks don’t bring him back for the final year of his contract.
Since Lynch’s holdout ended with him getting a small raise for the 2014 season, the speculation about his future has only grown, with national outlets like ESPN and the NFL Network reporting that Lynch is likely gone next year.
This week, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has apparently decided it’s time to put an end to the speculation, or at least attempt to do so. A day after telling USA Today that Lynch is “our guy” and that “we’d love to have him back,” Carroll addressed Lynch’s future again with the media following Friday’s practice.
“If you guys ever would have asked me, which you didn’t, if you ever would have asked, I would have said we want him around here for as long as he can play, and there’s never been any hesitation, there’s never been another thought about that,” Carroll said. “That came totally from somewhere else. He’s under contract next year, we’ll be thrilled to have him playing for us next year. So we’ll do everything we can to get that done.”
Carroll actually was asked on Oct. 27 about an ESPN report that said the Seahawks were tired of Lynch’s act and that he’d be gone in 2015 and responded, “I have nothing to say about that because there’s nothing to that. I have no idea where that came from. We have nothing to say about that.”
But what Carroll has or hasn’t been asked really doesn’t matter at this point, because there aren’t a lot of answers he can give about a player under contract other than to say he wants that player back. Carroll saying in November that they want Lynch, who is due $7 million in base salary and bonuses next year, back by no means guarantees the running back’s return in 2015.
For starters, even if the Seahawks did already have their minds made up on Lynch, which is unlikely at this point, is Carroll really going to say, “we love the guy, but he turns 29 next year and is too expensive for us to keep,” when they still are so reliant on him this season?
And secondly, you could hear a phrase like “we want him around here for as long as he can play,” and take that to mean that they’d also consider not having Lynch around if his play falls off or he shows signs of breaking down. After all, Lynch has only been able to practice one day each of the past three weeks because of the wear and tear on his body, and as a result, it’s not unreasonable to envision a scenario in which his health becomes a concern for the Seahawks going forward.
And finally, Carroll, like plenty of coaches, has expressed his desire keep a player, only to have the business side of the game force a different decision in the offseason. Carroll told reporters at the NFL scouting combine that they loved receiver Sidney Rice and tight end Zach Miller and hoped to have them back this season, and later that day, Rice was released in a salary-cap related move. Miller would have been released too had he not agreed to a restructured deal that decreased his 2014 pay significantly.
At other times last year, Carroll also expressed a desire to keep Red Bryant and Chris Clemons around, but they too were salary-cap casualties. Those examples aren’t brought up to call Carroll a liar; if money were no object, there’s a good chance most, if not all, of the above-mentioned players would be here this season. But the realities of the salary cap means that liking a player now, even one who is under contract through the following season, doesn’t guarantee that player’s future.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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