The Oakland Raiders pursuit of retired running back Marshawn Lynch has been ongoing for a while now, and it appeared that they had reached an agreement on a contract last week.
That ended up being a false alarm though, as Lynch himself tweeted out that he would let people know himself if he reached an agreement with the Raiders.
While there is no deal yet, many still believe that Lynch will eventually wind up being a Raider, it’s just a matter of time.
If a deal is going to happen it may need soon though, as NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport is reporting that the Raiders may decide to draft a running back if they are not able to sign Lynch by the time the draft starts, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
“Right now, there’s no agreement between Marshawn Lynch and the Oakland Raiders, and the real deadline here — they hoped to have it done by yesterday when offseason conditioning started, didn’t happen — the real deadline here is the draft,” Rapoport said. “Because it is possible that the Raiders get on the clock Thursday night or Friday, and say ‘Alright, we’re going to take this running back. He has a value here for us. We’re just going to take the leap.’ And once they take a running back, it probably will close the door on Marshawn Lynch.”
The Raiders currently have two young running backs heading into their second NFL season in DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard that have promising talent, but may not yet be ready to be feature backs.
Drafting a third young running back may not make that much sense to Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, so that is why a deal with a veteran like Lynch makes sense.
If Lynch and the Raiders do reach an agreement it would require a trade with the Seattle Seahawks as he still has two years remaining on his contract. Seahawks general manager John Schneider recently said that they are willing to make an easy deal with the Raiders because of his relationship with McKenzie though, so that should not be an issue.
