Seahawks: John Clayton says Marshawn Lynch 100% done in Seattle

The Seattle Seahawks are certain to part ways with Marshawn Lynch this offseason according to ESPN’s John Clayton.

With the season over, the topic everyone immediately turned to was the fate of Marshawn Lynch. Seattle’s mercurial running back is coming off an injury-plagued season, and is due to make $12.5 million next season.

According to legendary reporter John Clayton, there no reason to speculate. He said on Brock and Salk this morning that Lynch’s time in Seattle is over.

This isn’t exactly unexpected. Lynch was mostly ineffective this year when he did play, which wasn’t very often.

Thomas Rawls was clearly the better back this year. While Lynch had the lowest yards per carry of his Seattle tenure, Rawls led the NFL in yards per carry behind the same offensive line.

Even Christine Michael, the back that was traded by the Seahawks and then later cut by two teams before returning to Seattle, averaged over a yard per carry more than Lynch. That also includes two games (Rams and Vikings) in which the offense struggled to move the ball because of offensive line was dominated.

That tweet says a lot about the play of Seattle’s back this season. Lynch had the lowest per-carry average (fractionally less than even the 34 year old Jackson). Of all the backs that played significant snaps for Seattle. Only street free agents Bryce Brown (2.9) and DuJuan Harris (2.3) averaged less.

Ultimately though, this will be a salary cap move for the Seahawks. Lynch’s contract makes him impossible to keep. The big cap money on Wilson’s contact kicks in this year, and the Seahawks are set to lose key free agents all over the field if they cannot free up some cap space.

None of this changes one fact: Lynch has been amazing as a member of the Seahawks. If this is truly his last season in Seattle, he will be greatly missed.