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Legendary Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch reportedly started his process for returning to the NFL after his retirement last season, but it looks like he doesn’t even have to do that. Ian Rapoport has the details on the plans for Seattle to trade Lynch to the Oakland Raiders, with everything hinging on restructuring his contract.
Sources: The #Seahawks & #Raiders are expected to work out a trade for Marshawn Lynch to Oakland. It’s contingent on a reworked contract 1st
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 13, 2017
Per @NFL rules, if retired RB Marshawn Lynch is traded, he does not have to file a letter un-retiring. It would be a clean return to play.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 13, 2017
Marshawn Lynch had permission from SEA to talk to #Raiders. His agents have permission to rework his deal. IF it happens, then trade talks
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 13, 2017
As Lars Russell wrote in an article published literally minutes before this one, there’s good reason for Seattle to get to work on moving Lynch’s contract off the team.
The veteran’s approximately $9 million contract for 2017 will immediately count against Seattle’s salary cap, intensifying the pressure for John Schneider to trade or release Beast Mode before the NFL Draft in two weeks.
It seems like it’s all but assured that Beast Mode will get to play for his home team — and on a personal note, having grown up as a Bay Area kid myself, this was the team geographically closest to me — before their impending move to Las Vegas. The fun part is figuring out how the contract will be reworked and what Seattle will get in return. Lynch is 31 years old next week, so exactly how much is a 31-year-old running back (whose last healthy season was in 2014) worth in trading value? I guess we soon shall see.
Hey, at least Lynch isn’t going to the New England Patriots. That would’ve been a hard pill to swallow.