In their prime - Shaun
perfectly healthy - 'Shawn

Lynch plays with back issues.

Rocket wrote:In their prime - Shaun
perfectly healthy - 'Shawn

Lynch plays with back issues.

Lynch plays old school smash-ur-ass Football, hard for me not to love them both for totally different styles, as both have served this team with real distinction.

I am not voting on this, SA was a beast in his prime Lynch is a beast now. Too tough a choice.

I really appreciate both of them,but for the life of me I don't understand how most people here are taking Lynch EASILY??I guess fans typically go with he current guy,but I have not forgot a former MVP that ran for over 1800 yards and 27 TD's in a single season,most likely the greatest season a Hawk has ever had and he was far from a one hit wonder.We are fortunate to have had both of em!!

Can't call it.

I can't believe this is even a conversation... Lynch is the best RB in Seahawks history, unfortunatly he plays behind a suspect line. The man doesn't quit and he doesn't shy away from contact. Lets be honest... SA did a lot of that unless he was near the goal line. SA was a product of the O Line, The Beastmode is productive despite his line. If anyone thinks that Lynch wouldn't have got more yards than SA with that rediculous line, they you really do need to put down the reefer... When Lynch goes untouched, yes he can be caught, but he is fast enough and tuff enough to have challenged or beat the all-time reg season rushing record behind the 05 Hawks line. One thing I am sure of: he would have had more class than SA had in 04... pouting on the sidelines...

Exhibit A:
SA, 2005 reg season: 370 carries, 1880 yds, 5.1 ypa
ML, 2012 reg season: 261 carries, 1266 yds, 4.9 ypa

If Lynch gets 109 carries and holds anything close to his 4.9 ypa over the last three games he will be at or beyond 1700 yds on the season. This is less than SA's 1880 on the same number of carries, but with a significant downgrade in the OL department. Lynch IS the Seahawks running game. He gets his yards despite a suspect line. SA got his yards because of his line.

kearly wrote:

Scottemojo wrote:I am very curious to know if this ranking accounts for all the yards Lynch gets after contact. If it doesn't, then it really doesn't make a statement about the line.

You say yards after contact, I say vision. That said, I do think two things on this topic:

#1: Lynch probably helps his FO line stats more than Alexander did because of his superior consistency.

#2: The difference between the 2012 and 2005 lines is FAR smaller than the perception gap makes it out to be.

I SO disagree. Beyond the obvious differences, like the use of zone blocking concepts, the answer to this comparison is simply 2 hall of famers.

Last year, Lynch grew into a ZBS runner and then excelled while this line truly sucked and was chronically injured. What do you think Alexander would have done, even at his best, behind that line?
Flip that. Put last year's Lynch behind the 05 line. Would he have been off of Alexander's pace? Those two scenarios say as much about the lines as the runners.

I don't know the recent numbers, but as of the Vikings game, 40 percent of Lynch's yards were after contact. I doubt strongly that even in Alexander's MVP year he had 15 percent of his yards after contact.

This is a classic example of trying to compare "then & now". Its really not possible.

If I could pick one back to have for the Seahawks in his prime it would be OJ. Wouldn't most of us? OJ was the hard running type like Lynch who hit the pile, hit the pile, hit the pile, and one time came out on the other side of the pile and ran away from everyone for 40-50 yards. And remember he broke Jim Brown's single season record in the same number of games per year 14, not the 16 Dickerson had to barely edge that record. And he is the only one to break Brown's record of 7 consecutive games of over 100 yards rushing.

And there are others. If this O line could run decent sweeps I'd want Paul Hornung the best sweep runner ever, followed closely by Gayle Sayers. For straight speed runners no one compares to Sayers.

But we can't have those people. As has been said, Alexander was the league MVP that year so for that year at least you nay sayers have to admit to his value. (but probably won't)

Lynch is great for us now. His running style worrys me greatly as I go back to the 60s and can tell you that most backs that love contact like him have pretty short careers. I would love to have a really good O line for him to run behind so he won't have to take so much contact.

So why do we have to like either one "best". I loved Shaun when he was in his prime, I love Lynch now. Why isn't that enough?

hawks4thewin wrote:I would take LEON over SHAUN i think in 2005 becuase he is faster than shuan and goes down just as easy.

I think people toss this kind of thing out there way too willy nilly most of the time, but in this instance I really, really mean it.
This is the most unbelievably moronic post I have ever read on this site. Ever, and it's not even close.

hawks4thewin wrote:... someone more intelegent should comment

Clearly...

I don't know if anyone's posted this already or not (if so, I apologize). This week on 710 ESPN Brock Huard had Robbie Tobeck and Craig Terrell in for a mini-roundtable on the 2005 vs. the 2012 Hawks. It was awesome to get an all ex-Seahawks perspective. At one point, Brock threw out the whole Alexander vs. Lynch question as well. I'm not sure if it was Terrell or Tobeck, but the response was (basically), "Could you imagine the kind of numbers Lynch would have put up behind that Offensive Line?" Though they gave a real PC answer, there was a whole lot of Lynch love from those guys. Here is the link to the interview. Great stuff ...

2005 vs. the 2012 Hawks Roundtable

Not sure if this has been posted yet, if so I apologize. Although both are great runners in their own right, I feel Shaun fed the "soft" tag this team had for so long. Let's just say I am no longer worried about being embarrassed by my team's running back curling up into the fetal position.

Yards are ultimately the highest measure, but to have your running back run about as mean as anyone ever has feels better to me. I just prefer the beatdown mentality over finesse.

WolfGrey wrote:Not sure if this has been posted yet, if so I apologize. Although both are great runners in their own right, I feel Shaun fed the "soft" tag this team had for so long. Let's just say I am no longer worried about being embarrassed by my team's running back curling up into the fetal position.

Yards are ultimately the highest measure, but to have your running back run about as mean as anyone ever has feels better to me. I just prefer the beatdown mentality over finesse.

Great first post, and I agree with it. The soft label in 2005 used to piss me off, but it was true.

Match the Running Back to the Picture

Lynch has been consistent the last few years REGARDLESS of a passing game. Lynch> SA and it's not even close.

I'm a huge Alexander fan still and love the guy for what he did for us those several great years, but c'mon people. BeastMode FTW!! He's a stud, best we've ever had. And he plays hurt all the time behind a makeshift OL, never complains, and the players love him. We've had 2 of the Top 10 RBs of the last decade, I'd argue...

Just watched video of every TD in Alexander's 28 TD season. I counted 8 of those that I don't think Marshawn would have scored on. Watching the video, or any SA videos, really highlight the incredible 5-10 yard burst that he had, and then the long speed. I love to watch Marshawn play, but that burst that Shaun had is up there with the best to have every played the game.

Lynch has enough years left where he could pass SA in time, but for me, he's not there yet.

Jville wrote:

That's my man.

Jville wrote:

THIS

Still my all-time greatest RB in Seattle !!

...WE ARE...

I was looking for some vids of Curt, found one for his second season back from injury but hard to dig them up, was looking for his rookie year which if you seen the KC game was jaw dropping.

Trouble I had was Kurt Warner dominated the search.

Depends on the line.

With a great oline I take Alexander - he had such great vision,instincts and moves and significantly better top end speed than Marshawn.

With a great oline, obviously Lynch would be great but not-Alexander great.

Where Lynch gets the adavantage is if the the oline isn't special. Marshawn can run the ball not matter what the blocking is like becasue he is so hard to tackle and plays with so much passion.

If I have to draft one not knowing what my line is like I am taking Lynch because he is instant running game and brings a toughness that SA never did. I think both guys are ideally suited to the versions of the Seahawks teams they play on. Marshawn would never look as bas as SA did when the line collapsed though.

Give me Marshawn, I much prefer the identity that his style provides of Alexander's - and I am big fan of SA but his running was condusive to looking great behind a great oline.

Lynch is all heart, SA was the natural.

No one can ever downplay Alexander's accomplishments and he was absolutely great for us, but go to YouTube and watch a video of all 28 of his TDs in 05. Soooo many from about 3 yards out and even his longer ones were pretty much untouched.

It's my understanding that Lynch has never been behind an offensive line like our 2005 line, so to say he wouldn't do as well is not accurate IMO. And Lynch is just now getting a passing game to supplement the run which SA had the majority of his career.

Did Alexander have the 2005 Offensive Line in 2002-2004...

sammyc521 wrote:Did Alexander have the 2005 Offensive Line in 2002-2004...

Actually...yes he did.

Is there now an option for Wilson? This dude's got a NOSE for the ENDZONE!

Hustle Wilson!