The Outfield":277fczon said:
It kind of seems to me that Beast is losing the fire and desire that has made him so great. i.e. his lack of attendance to team-related activities and the rumors that he told the team all year that he'd retire if they won the Super Bowl. I hope I'm wrong, but at least we have some talent to fill the gap if need be.
What ? I know it's an opinion, and I'm not attacking poster or opinion here, but what actually do you see to base this off of ?
The only voluntary OTA's I remember Lynch attending were his first. He's missed all of them since. Try and google Lynch's workouts sometime; I remember seeing them last year, but the guy works out harder than anyone I've seen. He has a private trainer working out him and about 4 other NFL guys in Oakland, and Lynch outworks them all.
Last year, it looked like Lynch was wearing down. Towards the end of the year, and in the playoffs it seemed like he was losing steam and fumbling a bit more than usual.
This year, whether it was conditioning or the 1st round bye, Lynch looked strong all the way through. The Saints and 49ers game he tore up both defenses in, and they were highly rated run defenses. This with worse blocking on the OL than last year as well, plus back problems he's been dealing with. The SB was some of the worst run blocking by our OL all year that I'd seen.
Lynch has always been hard to read. If you think he lacks fire, look at the time this year when he flipped the coaches off from the field because they called a pass play inside the 5 yard line. Lynch want the ball, and he wants to punish the defense. He knows his job and excels at it.
As for Michael, no he's not Lynch, but like some have said "who is?" No one in the NFL is quite like Lynch; a bruiser that breaks tackles, sheds tackles, punishes tacklers, makes people straight up miss, and can still break the long ball. He catches well out of the backfield. The closest guy I can think of in the last 10 years to Lynch is Marion Barber. Barber didn't have the elusiveness of Lynch or the hands out of the backfield ,but his runs had the same effect.
I can't wait to see Michael on the field. I love Turbo, but he is what he is at this point and he won't break many tackles. Even so, I'd rather see us ride Lynch until we can't any more, because he's a unique talent and when he goes, it's going to effect us. Especially against the 49ers.
