Tag Archives: Marshawn Lynch

CHAWK LINES
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CHAWK LINES -- Week in review

The Seahawks got four comp picks for the first time, giving them 11 picks in the draft.

The Seahawks added three defensive coaches — including former Seattle assistant Dwaine Board and one of Pete Carroll’s former USC defensive backs.

John Schneider talked about Russell Wilson, Michael Bennett and Brandon Mebane at the owners meetings.

Carroll said he is “fueled” by the Super Bowl loss and doesn’t want to let it go because he wants to learn from it.

He also said, “I’m confident that this team is going to come back and fricking roar. We are going to roar back into this offseason. These guys are working hard for it.’’

Carroll said all reports on Wilson’s contract so far were incorrect, and he talked about many of the players along the defensive line.

Carroll also said the Hawks are working on re-signing several of their remaining free agents.

Schneider said the Seahawks chose Michael Bennett over Golden Tate last year because the draft had a better class of receivers than pass rushers. (The Hawks ended up drafting receivers Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood.)

The NFL is going to change the PAT in some fashion. Here’s Carroll’s idea:

The Saints reportedly talked to the Dolphins about Jimmy Graham, too.

The Kingdome was imploded 15 years ago this week. And the debt for that structure was finally paid off this week as well.

Carroll helped Mike Williams, former USC star and one-time Seahawk, get a gig coaching high school football in Los Angeles.

Marshawn Lynch will appear in a Ludacris video for the rapper’s riff called — what else? — “Beast Mode.” (Did he have to pay Lynch royalties for using that title?)

Lynch has a strain of pot named after him, but he doesn’t smoke, according to Snoop Dogg, who said, “My homeboy got a career to play. He’s still in the NFL. He’s got a commissioner to deal with.”

Clare Farnsworth, who had covered the Seahawks for nearly their entire existence, retired this week.

Contracts, State of the team, The roster

How serious is Bennett?

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Michael Bennett and Drew RosenhausA year ago, before he re-signed with the Seahawks, Michael Bennett was asked whether he would give the Super Bowl champs a Dynasty Discount — i.e., take a little less money to stay on the NFL’s best defense and the new perennial Super Bowl favorite.

His reply: “There’s no such thing as a discount. This is not Costco. This is not Walmart. This is real life. There’s no discount, really, because you don’t go out there and give a discount effort. You go out there and give the best effort every day, you fight for your teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way you perform and the kind of teammate you are.”

But he did in fact give the Hawks a bit of a break, accepting a little less in a four-year deal worth $28.5 million, including $16 million guaranteed.

“I don’t think there’s any better situation, no matter how much money is involved,” he told 710 ESPN after signing.

But, after being paid $10 million in 2014, Bennett apparently has decided he wants to head back to Costco and trade the deal in for a new one.

That will not happen. Seattle general manager John Schneider made that clear with his stance against Marshawn Lynch last year.

The question then is this: How much of a stink does Bennett plan to make about his contract? Will he push for the rumored trade to Atlanta? And when he doesn’t get it, will he hold out like Lynch did last year? Or for longer? Or, is he just seeing what he can get and willing to go back to work for the deal he signed just one year ago?

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State of the team, The roster

Roster analysis: Hawks are already better

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Jimmy Graham scores against the SeahawksTwo weeks into the new NFL year, the Seahawks are already a better team — despite losing four starters and nine players overall from their 2014 roster.

Re-signing Marshawn Lynch and adding one of the league’s best tight ends will make any team’s offseason.

Sure, the Hawks lost cornerback Byron Maxwell, center Max Unger, guard James Carpenter, tight end Zach Miller and five others via free agency, trade or cut. But they replaced Maxwell with Cary Williams and Will Blackmon and satisfied their tight end/receiver need with their stunning trade for Jimmy Graham.

They’re still looking for help along the lines but otherwise appear to be moving on to the big extensions for Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner — as well as the draft, where they will get even better via 11 picks.

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CHAWK LINES, Free agency
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CHAWK LINES -- Week in review

For the second time in three years, the Seahawks stole the headlines on the first day of free agency, trading Max Unger and a first-round pick to the Saints for Jimmy Graham and a fourth.

Just days after signing his new contract, Marshawn Lynch purportedly found himself in the middle of a street brawl — and wisely extricated himself.

Lots of former Seattle cornerbacks are getting paid by other teams, Bob Condotta points out. It’s because they come from the Pete Carroll Secondary School.

The Seahawks added their own corner, Cary Williams. Here’s a breakdown from Doug Farrar. And here’s one from Field Gulls.

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CHAWK LINES
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CHAWK LINES -- Week in review

What else is new? Marshawn Lynch dominated the news this week.

First, he talked to Turkish TV about the last play of the Super Bowl, which prompted Warren Moon to say Lynch’s MVP comments stemmed from the fact that he “just doesn’t trust a lot of people.”

Robert Turbin said he didn’t buy into the conspiracy talk surrounding the final play.

Then, on Friday, Lynch signed an extension with the Hawks, who also released Zach Miller and tendered restricted free agent Jermaine Kearse at the second-round level.

Lynch’s agent, Doug Hendrickson, talked about how the deal came together and answered other questions about his client.

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Contracts, Free agency

Here’s a plan that adds Julius, Tramon & Paea

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Julius Thomas vs SeahawksNow that the
Seahawks have
Marshawn Lynch locked up, they can get to work on the rest of their spring home improvement projects.

They basically broke even with the salary cap on Friday, with Lynch’s cap number remaining the same and Jermaine Kearse taking up the same $2.4 million slot that Zach Miller vacated. So, the Hawks still have around $24 million to work with as free agency ramps up this weekend and begins Tuesday.

That’s plenty of money for the Hawks to sign tight end Julius Thomas at $8 million a year ($6 million cap hit in 2015), defensive tackle Stephen Paea at $6 million a year ($3.5 million in 2015) and cornerback Tramon Williams at $5 million a year ($3.7 million in 2015).

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Contracts, State of the team

Lynch’s agent discusses the deal and his client

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Lynch on Super BowlDoug Hendrickson, the agent for Marshawn Lynch, said the running back never wanted to leave Seattle and has not mentioned retirement to him, and Seahawks general manager John Schneider pushed a contract extension hard starting the day after the Super Bowl.

Talking to KJR Radio about Lynch’s three-year, $31 million contract, Hendrickson said Lynch was Seattle’s first priority and Schneider called him the day after the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl — by not running Lynch at the goal line — and started talking about getting Lynch’s deal extended.

“They wanted to get it done, and they wanted to get it done fast,” Hendrickson said.

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Contracts, Free agency, The roster

Lynch deal overshadows the bad news

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Lynch with the wry smileIt was a good news-bad news day for the Seahawks.

The release of Zach Miller and double dose of bad news from the Bears-Jets trade Friday was trumped by the great news that Marshawn Lynch is set to return for another season.

After various reports had him making $11 million for one year, $24 million for two years or $31 million for three years, it appears the latter is correct. He will get $12 million in 2015, up from his scheduled $7 million. His cap hit will remain the same, though, at $8.5 million, because he will get $4.5 million in salary and $7.5 million in a signing bonus (he had $1.5 million in bonus proration from his previous deal).

He is signed through 2017, if he chooses to return. He would make $9 million in 2016, counting $11.5 million. He would make $10 million in 2017, including a $3 million roster bonus, and count $12.5 million. If he retires after 2015, the Hawks would take a $5 million cap hit in dead money next year.

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Contracts, Free agency, The roster

What will Hawks do in free agency? Check out the last three years

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John Schneider (via Fresh Files)Over the past three years, we have gotten a good idea of how John Schneider leads the Seahawks in free agency.

Outside of the big blockbuster deal for Percy Harvin in 2013, Schneider typically has moved at a measured pace in March — making as many roster deletions as additions and signing only mid-priced free agents.

It should be more of the same this month.

Schneider said it himself at the Combine last month: “We are going to keep doing things the way we started here: Just keep drafting people and playing young people and trying to keep the players that we can keep, try to identify the players that we have to reward and make those tough decisions about players that are under contract that you may have to let go to create some cap room. Those are just tough decisions as you go. We are not going to change anything we do.”

So what have they done the last three years?

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State of the team, Super Bowl XLIX

Conspiracy talk aside, all signs point to Lynch returning

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Lynch on Super Bowl

It has been exactly a month since the Super Bowl debacle, and we still don’t know for sure whether Marshawn Lynch will return in 2015 for his sixth season with the Seahawks.

But the signs all seem to indicate he will — even if he apparently thinks Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell tried to sabotage Lynch’s MVP chances by not handing him the ball on the Seahawks’ final offensive play.

While in Istanbul for American Football Without Barriers, Lynch said he expected and wanted the ball on the final play but had no problem with the fact that he didn’t get it, even though he vaguely referenced the conspiracy theory that arose immediately after the game (probably started by him).

Continue reading Conspiracy talk aside, all signs point to Lynch returning →