Marshawn Lynch is an Oakland Raider now. He was drafted out of college by the Buffalo Bills in 2007 and stayed for 3 years. Lynch was the second all-time leading rusher during his college years at California. He was traded from the Buffalo Bills to the Seattle Seahawks where he was on the team that won Super Bowl XLVIII. After the 2015 season, Lynch retired for one year and in 2017 applied for reinstatement and was traded to the Oakland Raiders. Lynch has been tagged with the nickname “Beast Mode” because of his powerful style of running, ability to break tackles and run over defensive players.
Lynch had announced his retirement through Twitter by posting a picture of his football cleats hanging from a telephone wire. He was often very unfriendly to the media. So what? It is hard to know whether he has the ability to regain the excellent statistics he had with Buffalo and Seattle. His average yearly yardage rushing for those years is approximately 1200 years. Will he be able to regain that remarkable rushing ability with the Oakland Raiders.
Lynch is very excited to be joining the Raiders. He was raised in the Oakland area and was a fan of the team growing up. This is definitely a plus. The management and players are excited about having him be part of the team. This is another plus. Even though he is 31 years old, there is potentially a good 3 to 5 years left in his body to do very well.
There are a few hurdles to overcome however. Let me list a few year. When you are away from a fast moving sport like football or hockey for a year, an athlete’s senses can change. The athlete relies upon his/her senses in order to react effectively to the action on field or ice. Eyes and ears don’t operate with the same dexterity. Besides the opposition getting bigger and faster, the senses don’t pick up the action as quickly. Can they be retrained to pick up the speed of the game at the required level to be successful? There is nothing like experiencing the game again and hope that all senses get to fire as fast and instinctively. Then there is the issue of not having been hit by the opposition for a year. How do you handle big hits? Confidence in being able to deal with large hits from the opposition can wane.
The competitive edge may take a hit when you don’t play for a while. Look at Tiger Woods. He is still trying to find that competitive edge. Lynch wants to win. But, having that competitive edge is more than just thinking I want to win. Last but not least, since an athlete’s body is a little different than it was over a year ago and all the factors mentioned above, the possibility getting injured increases. The coaches may be aware of all these issues and providing the training that will help Lynch be successful again.
