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| Seattle and Lynch are reportedly 'deep' in contract talks. (Getty Images) |
In 2011, Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch had the most productive season of his career, rushing for 1,204 yards and 12 touchdowns on 285 carries. Despite that, it's been thought that Seattle wouldn't use the franchise-tag on the impending free agent.
A report from Jason LaCanfora of NFL Network significantly changes the perception of Lynch's future in Seattle, as LaCanfora writes on Monday that the two sides are "deep" in contract talks and could use the tag if a deal isn't completed.
"The Seahawks are deep in talks with running back Marshawn Lynch on a long-term deal, which could well be completed before the March 5 deadline. If that somehow falls apart, the Seahawks are prepared to tag Lynch, according to a source with knowledge of the situation."
There's reason to be optimistic about Lynch's future. Though he didn't produce his best cumulative season, he was absolutely dominant down the stretch in 2011, rushing for 941 yards (78.2 percent of his season total) over the final nine games of the season.
And maybe this tag is an obvious one to some people, but there's a reason we didn't list Lynch when we ran down a list of guys we thought would be likely to get franchise-tagged: he's got some serious mileage and some serious question marks.
For starters, Lynch's career-high yards-per-carry total is 4.2, which he posted in 2011. It's also easy to laud his numbers from 2011, but remember, through the first seven weeks of the season, Lynch was averaging 3.55 YPC and just 44 yards per game. That's not the sort of performance that warrants a big-money, long-term investment and it might not be the type of performance worthy of an $8-million-ish payday just for next season either.
Especially when you could just pay him in Skittles.
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