Lynch gets call as Seahawks prepare for 49ers
As if their desperate signing of the retired Marshawn Lynch after an embarrassing loss to the Cardinals didn’t already give it away, these aren’t the same Seahawks the 49ers played just last month.
Crippling injuries may be at the forefront of Seattle’s troubles, but there are other reasons this version of the Seahawks may not seem as formidable when the 49ers face them at CenturyLink Field Sunday night with the NFC West title on the line.
From quarterback Russell Wilson no longer playing like an MVP candidate to the team’s disappearing pass rush, things are definitely askew in Seattle.
Now, about those injuries. The Seahawks played most of Sunday’s game without threefifths of their starting offensive linemen, and they won’t have star running back Chris Carson (hip fracture), safety Quandre Diggs (ankle) or left tackle Duane Brown (knee) on the field this coming Sunday. Standout cornerback Shaquill Griffin (hamstring) missed the last two games but may return Sunday.
When C.J. Prosise broke his arm Sunday it left Seattle with fourth-stringer Travis Homer as its only healthy running back.
Drastic times made for the easy decision to reach back into the past Sunday night — that’s when the Seahawks dialed the 510 area code for help. Enter “Beast Mode.”
Lynch’s agent, Doug Hendrickson, tweeted a photo of the contract his client signed late Monday night.
Sure, the 33-year-old Lynch, who was enjoying retirement in Oakland, may be past his prime, but tackling him likely won’t be a fun process for the 49ers on Sunday.
Pro Football Focus’ numbers show no one in the NFL since 2006 has broken more tackles than Lynch, who had 674 of them in his
11-year career that seemingly ended in London 14 months ago when the Raiders lost to the Seahawks. Adrian Peterson’s 586 broken tackles are second-best to Lynch and the powerful Frank Gore, the NFL’s third-leading rusher of all-time, was more than 200 broken tackles behind
Lynch before the season.
Anecdotally, there are probably more than 200 defenders who could tell you horror stories about trying to tackle Lynch. Like former Saints and Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis, who says Lynch was easily the most difficult player he had to tackle during his eight-year career. And not just because of Lynch’s brute strength.
“With Marshawn, it’s his lateral quickness that people don’t give him credit for. I would say fans (don’t know about it). Players know about it,” Laurinaitis said in an NFL Network interview. “He sets you up. You get in the hole with him, you start to drop your hips, you’re thinking ‘I’ve got to wait for a move,’ then he decides to punch you in the throat. You’re like, ‘OK, now I’m falling backwards.’ “
It’s not as though Lynch needs a whole lot of help from his linemen, either. In his final season with the Raiders last year,
Lynch was first in the NFL in forced missed tackles per attempt (0.26) and sixth in yards after contact (3.46). Some poor Raiders line play led to Lynch gaining 72.2 percent of his yards after contact, which was the fifth-best in the league.
“There’s nobody (more) that ever exemplified the mentality and toughness that we like to play with ... we’ll see how that works out,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle on Monday.