Report: Marshawn Lynch “Really Wants to Play For” the Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are in the market for a new running back after letting Latavius Murray depart for the Minnesota Vikings, and they have a very interesting plan to acquire one.

Last week, ESPN reported that the Raiders are “strongly considering” acquiring running back Marshawn Lynch from the Seattle Seahawks, who still have Lynch’s rights despite ‘Beast Mode’s’ decision to hang up his cleats in February 2016. The interest between the Raiders and Lynch appears to be mutual.

Per Peter King of The MMQB, Lynch ‘really wants’ to play for the Raiders. King writes that the 30-year-old Lynch also wants to grow his foundation in the West Coast area, with the purpose being to play both football professionally again, and greater impacting his public image through his Fam 1st Family Foundation.

To acquire Lynch, the Seahawks will have to agree to trade with the Raiders, or cut Lynch and allow the Raiders to sign him to their own version of a contract. Cutting Lynch seems like the most logical option, as the Raiders wouldn’t part with anything to significantly benefit the Seahawks in the long run.

King states that Lynch will cost either the Raiders or the Seahawks $9 million in 2017, and that deal could be pricey for the Raiders who need money to sign players like Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, and Amari Cooper in the coming years. The best version of a deal for Lynch for Oakland would be one with incentives tied in, also per King.

Seattle is also not expected to hold up the process and keep Lynch on their roster if he asks for his release, which is what the Cowboys are currently doing with quarterback Tony Romo. Lynch retired from the NFL with some questions about him within Seahawks management, and he has always been very well liked and respected by his teammates and fans.

Also, the Seahawks should have no desire to keep him on the roster. They don’t have a glaring need for a running back, especially after the signing of Eddie Lacy. In-addition to Lacy, they have Thomas Rawls, C.J. Prosise, and Alex Collins, making them set at halfback.

The bottom line is that there is a very good chance Lynch is playing in the NFL next season, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported previously. The impact Lynch will have on the Super Bowl contending Raiders will be a huge unknown story line entering the 2017 season, if it indeed happens due to Lynch’s age and the usual drop off of running backs after age 30 and beyond.

For his NFL career, Lynch, a five-time Pro Bowler, has rushed for 9,112 yards on 2,144 rushing attempts. He has 83 career touchdowns between rushing and receiving, with 74 of them coming on the ground and the other 9 coming through the air.

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