The situation surrounding Marshawn Lynch’s availability for Sunday’s playoff game at Minnesota has been confounding to say the least.
Lynch practiced this week and Pete Carroll said he expected the running back to start and carry the load for the Seahawks against the Vikings. Lynch was listed as questionable and was expected to play in the game, but he didn’t make the trip to Minnesota, seemingly out of nowhere.
A report said Lynch made the decision that he could not play in the game and that’s why he didn’t make the trip. Former Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, who is now with NFL Network, said Saturday that Lynch “wasn’t quite right” and not “explosive” during the week.
"He wasn’t quite right & he’s not going to get on the field until he feels like he’s right." — @RealMikeRob on Marshawn Lynch
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) January 9, 2016
"During the week he wasn’t explosive." — @RealMikeRob on Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) January 9, 2016
It’s difficult to reconcile the information presented by Robinson with what Carroll said. Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said during the week that Lynch looked good in practice. Hearing that Lynch looked good and then seeing the running back not make the trip to Minnesota makes him look bad. And should we doubt Robinson, who is pretty plugged-in to all things Seahawks, about what he reported?
The only situation where it wouldn’t appear like Seattle’s coaches were throwing Lynch under the bus would be if they talked him up to the media intentionally as a strategy to make Minnesota think Lynch would be playing, forcing them to prepare for him all week, while knowing the whole time that Lynch might not be ready to play.
