During the fourth quarter of the Denver-Carolina Super Bowl, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch made his announcement regarding his status for the 2016 season.
In typical ‘Marshawn being Marshawn’ fashion, he did so without saying a word – rather choosing to tweet a picture of cleats being hung up.
If Lynch stays true to his word and retires, has he done enough to make the Hall of Fame? With the 2016 HOF class just having been announced, now is as good a time as ever to view Beast Mode’s candidacy.
A quick glimpse at the numbers:
Carries: 2,144 (34th)
Rushing Yards: 9,112 (36th)
Yards Per Carry: 4.3
Rushing Touchdowns: 74 (24th)
Lynch missed the 10,000-yard mark, but that’s not enough of a Hall of Fame guarantee as it used to be. After all, look at Edgerrin James, Ricky Watters, or Warrick Dunn, to name a few modern players that have reached the 10K mark but haven’t gotten the call to Canton.
Lynch has five Pro Bowls and six 1,000-yard seasons. He’s one of just five players in league history to put together four straight years of 1,200 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns – the others are Adrian Peterson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson. That’s elite company for sure. Lynch has also led the NFL in rushing touchdowns on two separate occasions, and until his sports hernia injury in ’15, Lynch had suited up for 75 of 76 games since Seattle acquired him via trade midway through 2010.
Lynch’s ticket to Canton could come via his postseason success.
He’s turned in some memorable moments. There was the legendary touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints, the one that quite literally caused an earthquake. He was the offensive catalyst for the 2013 Super Bowl champion Seahawks, rushing for 288 yards and four touchdowns in the three postseason games. And it’s very likely he would have scored the game-winning touchdown in the next year’s Super Bowl had he just been given the ball from a yard out. In all, Lynch rushed for 100 yards in six of his 11 career playoff contests, scoring nine touchdowns and averaging an impressive 4.9 yards per carry. He’s eighth in all-time playoff rushing yards, and every player ahead of him is in the Hall of Fame but Terrell Davis (whose career was cut short due to injuries).
Lynch’s statistics are eerily similar to those of Hall of Famer Earl Campbell, as Adam Schefter pointed out. Then again, Campbell was a three-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year who won the rushing title in each of his first three seasons. Lynch has never been voted the league’s Offensive Player of the Year and he’s never won a rushing title. It’s difficult to say whether he’s ever been the league’s best running back, but for the majority of Lynch’s career, that honor has belonged to Adrian Peterson (Lynch received First-Team AP All-Pro status once).
Whether it’s fair or not, public perception plays a big role in a player’s Hall of Fame chances. There’s no other logical reason for why Terrell Owens – second all-time in receiving yards and third in receiving touchdowns – didn’t make the Hall.
Lynch was certainly an enigma. His refusal to speak to the media was well-documented, to the point that a parody of it was even made in a Pepsi commercial. And he did underwhelm in Buffalo – where he was originally a 2007 first-round pick – even dealing with a three-game suspension from the league for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
It’s likely Lynch falls short in the voters’ eyes. He never reached 10,000 yards and never won a rushing title. He only played nine years in the league, and two of those (2009 and 2015) were largely forgettable. Lynch was a terrific running back and the most valuable offensive weapon for the Seahawks for a handful of years, but he probably needed at least one or two more quality seasons.
