Remember when Marshawn Lynch announced his retirement? You remember. He decided to retire and declared he wouldn’t be playing football anymore. He enjoyed his newly found free time by doing things like riding camels. Marshawn Lynch has been living it up.
Yet as the NFL season has officially started, there appears to be an itch from the former All-Pro running back. Lynch, 30, is reportedly considering a mid-season comeback only a few months after his retirement.
Mike Florio of NBC and Pro Football Talk broke the news live during the NFL Pregame show before the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos season-opener.
He added the following on Pro Football Talk.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Lynch is currently “up in the air” about returning to the NFL. The source said that Week Four or Week Five could be the hot spots for a possible unretirement.
The Seahawks still hold Lynch’s rights, since he was placed on the reserve-retired list. If he files the appropriate paperwork necessary to end his retirement, the Seahawks will have to decide whether to welcome him back onto the active roster, to trade him, or to cut him.
If he returns before the trade deadline, which comes on the Tuesday after Week Eight, Lynch would become a free agent, if released. After the trade deadline, he would pass through waivers, if the Seahawks cut him. (Obviously, at that point they couldn’t trade him.)
Lynch has a $9 million salary with the Seahawks and the prorated amount of it would hit the team’s salary cap, if he is actually reinstated to the active Seahawks roster. The Seahawks have essentially moved on, showcasing Thomas Rawls as their running back of the future with a nice change-of-pace back-up in Christine Michael. A few factors could easily change the Seahawks mind. The team’s win-loss record and overall offensive effectiveness will surely be factors in whatever decision the team makes concerning the potential return of ‘Beastmode’.
