Except, he wasn't 'head and shoulders' above Shaun, he was roughly in the same category (44.3 vs. 46.7 for their careers) and Shaun's numbers were brought down significantly by his numbers post broken foot whereas Marshawn only has his extremely short second stint with the Seahawks bringing his numbers down. Nobody who says Shaun was great is thinking he was great in 2006 or 07.
And this is where we get into the bit about thinking Shaun was a liability on third and short or only the beneficiary of his O-Line, so I compared across the three best seasons with the 'Hawks for Watters, Alexander, and Lynch on third and fourth and short but ALSO the respective backups across those years for each.
Watters had a 59% success rate, the backups 57%. Lynch, 69% to 65%.
Alexander? 74% to 65%.
Not only was Shaun MUCH more reliable on those third down but he was the only one who thoroughly, statistically outperformed his backups who had the exact same line blocking for him.
The idea that he was weak on third/fourth and short was a self-reinforcing myth. He did good, people just give the credit to the line. When he failed? It's 'cause he's soft.
Also, those PFF signature stats don't include Alexander because they only go back to 2006.
Didn't Alexander play in 06?
But fair enough.
Broken tackles. Yards after contact. Yards before contact. Talk to me about those because they more accurately speak to a backs individual ability.
And the success rate stat only looks good for Shaun when you average it. Sort the success column high to low for both and Lynch is consistently better.
And for all the talk about 'not every runner is a tough, bruising type' as a defense for Shaun's soft style for the sake of extending his career... Shaun took and gave out far less punishment and broke much sooner than Lynch, who ran harder, got the tougher yards, broke more tackles, got more yards after contact, and played for far less talented an o line, in far less a dynamic asystem than Shaun. Shoot, AP played longer and had better 'rb' stats as well.
And Lynch had chronic back problems for most of his career. Not just 2 down seasons like Shaun with his foot.
Shaun has TDs and yards. I think Maurice Morrus averaged a solid 4.3 plus avg in Seattle behind the same o line.
If Mauruce Morris averaged what he did behind that line, what do you think Lynch would have done? Unless you are also saying Morris had some superior gift that Lynch didn't as well? What would LaDainian have done? Faulk? Ahman Green? Priest Holmes? They would have done as well, as if not better. BtW, they all also ran harder than Shaun and played as long, if not longer. And that's just a small sample group .
Look, I'm glad we had him. But even when he was racking up his best stats, the tape on him as a 'rb' outside of our O line just wasn't eye popping, the way it was for the true greats. And I put Lynch in that category.
Lynch could make a guy miss in a phone booth (for you youngsters, us old folk used to have to go into 7 ft tall x 3ft x 3ft glass and metal boxes with accordian doors to make phone calls) . He could run over you, through you, around you. He had unreal balance and strength. And he could juke the Sox off of the best defenders.
Ray Lewis, anyone?
Ray Lewis :
where did he go?
The other guy who's ankles Lynch broke:
Where did whhooo go?
Lynch was an outstanding back for everything he could do. Not just the punishing runs.
And I've also said this before. Even his HC was reluctant to give him the credit for all he did because he was also critical of him not getting the tough yards and capitalizing on his o line's play. MIKE HOLMGREN, who btw lauded Ricky Watters, never saw Shaun as 'that guy'.
That speaks volumes.
love profusely enough for Shaun Alexander. 
