Marshawn Lynch has hung up his cleats, and those are definitely huge shoes for the Seahawks to fill. He’s going to go down as one of the greats as his position – certainly better than some of the running backs that are already in the Hall of Fame.
If you look at overall production – yards and touchdowns – Lynch is certainly good rather than great, but he came up awfully big in a lot of big games. He went over 100 yards six times in playoff games, including four with over 130 yards. He powered Seattle to a pair of Super Bowl games.
And if you were to grade running backs simply by the 5-10 best runs of their career, Lynch is right up there at the very top. His Beast Quake run is not only a jaw-dropper, but it came in a playoff game. When you measure the greatest of the run and the size of the stage, the only run I can think of that’s in that same class would be Marcus Allen’s long touchdown against Washington in the Super Bowl.
Lynch had another Beast Quake type run, and he also had a pair of great touchdown runs in conference championship games. So purely in terms of great runs, I think he’s up there with all-timers like Earl Campbell, Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson and Jim Brown.
Time will tell if Lynch has done enough to wind up in Canton. I think he’s definitely better than a couple of backs who’ve made it in recent years – Jerome Bettis and Floyd Little. But there are lots of other great players waiting to get in, and that includes running backs like Terrell Davis and Edgerrin James. Chuck Foreman was a great running back in the ‘70s who helped the Vikings to three Super Bowls; he’s not in.
As for the Seahawks, they should be fine. Thomas Rawls did awfully well filling in for Lynch last year. Only issues are whether he can stay healthy (he’s a smaller guy who takes a lot of punishment) and whether the Seahawks can piece together an adequate offensive line.
But quality, productive running backs are hard to find. And factoring in ages, there are only two that I would for sure select before Rawls in a dynasty draft – LeVeon Bell and Todd Gurley. Devonta Freeman is also in the mix; he’s in a good scheme and is a much better pass catcher.
Shooting from the hip (that is, without putting too much thought into it), my top 50 running backs in a dynasty league right now would look something like this. For guys that I believe will be free agents, I’ve put a black dot in front of their names.
DYNASTY RUNNING BACKS | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Player | Age |
1. | PIT | LeVeon Bell | 23 |
2. | STL | Todd Gurley | 21 |
3. | ATL | Devonta Freeman | 23 |
4. | SEA | Thomas Rawls | 22 |
5. | SF | Carlos Hyde | 24 |
6. | NO | Mark Ingram | 26 |
7. | TB | • Doug Martin | 27 |
8. | ARI | David Johnson | 24 |
9. | CHI | Jeremy Langford | 24 |
10. | JAC | T.J. Yeldon | 22 |
11. | WAS | Matt Jones | 22 |
12. | NE | Dion Lewis | 25 |
13. | MIN | Adrian Peterson | 30 |
14. | DEN | C.J. Anderson | 24 |
15. | CIN | Giovani Bernard | 24 |
16. | BUF | Karlos Williams | 22 |
17. | MIA | • Lamar Miller | 24 |
18. | CIN | Jeremy Hill | 23 |
19. | BUF | LeSean McCoy | 27 |
20. | OAK | Latavius Murray | 26 |
21. | CHI | • Matt Forte | 30 |
22. | KC | Jamaal Charles | 29 |
23. | CAR | Jonathan Stewart | 28 |
24. | NYJ | • Chris Ivory | 27 |
25. | SD | Melvin Gordon | 22 |
26. | PHI | DeMarco Murray | 27 |
27. | CLE | Duke Johnson | 22 |
28. | DET | Ameer Abdullah | 22 |
29. | WAS | • Alfred Morris | 27 |
30. | CLE | Isaiah Crowell | 23 |
31. | TB | Charles Sims | 25 |
32. | GB | Eddie Lacy | 25 |
33. | ATL | Tevin Coleman | 22 |
34. | PHI | Ryan Mathews | 28 |
35. | SD | Danny Woodhead | 31 |
36. | MIA | Jay Ajayi | 22 |
37. | BAL | Javorius Allen | 24 |
38. | NYG | Shane Vereen | 26 |
39. | KC | Charcandrick West | 24 |
40. | HOU | Alfred Blue | 24 |
41. | DEN | • Ronnie Hillman | 24 |
42. | MIN | Jerick McKinnon | 23 |
43. | CAR | Cameron Artis-Payne | 25 |
44. | NYJ | Bilal Powell | 27 |
45. | KC | Spencer Ware | 24 |
46. | NE | • LeGarrette Blount | 29 |
47. | GB | • James Starks | 29 |
48. | DET | Theo Riddick | 24 |
49. | ARI | Andre Ellington | 27 |
50. | TEN | David Cobb | 22 |
—Ian Allan