Seattle Seahawks Rumors: Marshawn Lynch Could Be Replaced By Todd Gurley Next Season

The Seattle Seahawks are rumored to be looking at the 2015 NFL draft for the future of their backfield after indications that Marshawn Lynch could be leaning toward retirement.

Some draft experts believe that the team could go for the best running back available — which could be Georgia’s Todd Gurley — if Lynch decides to retire.

In the home stretch of this past season, it appeared that the Seahawks were ready to part ways with Lynch, who has a cool relationship with the team’s coaching staff and a number of run-ins with the league.

But as the bruising running back carried the team to the edge of their second Super Bowl berth in the last two years, the team changed course and decided to offer Lynch a contract extension.

Now, after weeks with no progress and now communication between sides, rumors have been building that Marshawn Lynch is thinking about retirement.

After weeks of waiting, Seahawks general manager John Schneider is ready for Lynch to make a decision.

“I’m not over it – Do I wake up in cold sweats? When you wake in the morning and think about it, absolutely, it’s something that will stick with us forever,” Schneider said. “And it will keep driving us to get better.”

“I’ve talked to his people a bunch,” Schneider added. “He knows we want him to play.”

Schneider added that he doesn’t think Marshawn Lynch will walk away from the game when he clearly has quite a bit left in the tank, but said it’s not out of the realm of possibilities.

“He’s a guy who kind of beats to his own drum,” he said. “He does what he wants. He never lets you know one way or the other.”

“There’s been a lot of good running backs who have just walked away. So I have no idea.”

But others think Marshawn Lynch may be serious about plans to retire. Former teammate Michael Robinson, who retired last season at age 30, said Lynch almost hung up his cleats before the season began.

“I don’t think he knew whether he was going to play last year until almost training camp,” Robinson said in a 710 ESPN Seattle radio interview. “Marshawn is getting to a point in his life where he may want to enjoy other things that are important to him.”

But if the Seattle Seahawks do lose Marshawn Lynch to retirement, they may be ready to reload a running back. Some experts think they could target either Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon and Georgia’s Todd Gurley if either back should happen to fall to them at the No. 31 pick — which is not entirely unlikely given how running backs have fallen in value in recent years.