Allow me. I do this once a year, so feel free to cut and paste this every week Lynch runs for over 100 yards.
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Fred Jackson ran him off the field. Literally. Freddie burst onto the scene and not only was he a better runner than Marshawn, he was better at every facet of the position. He had better hands, ran better routes, was better in pass protection, and he had the characteristics of a team leader both in the locker room and off the field. And although Fred was 28, he had very low mileage on him from his short NFL career.
Marshawn on the other hand had a flighty, quirky personality. He showed flashes of brilliance when he went "Beastmode" inside the red zone, but that intensity didn't happen every time he touched the ball (it should in the NFL) He was involved in a hit-and-run incident at 4AM downtown, then to follow that up he stole $20 out of someone's purse (seriously?). He was 1 incident away from facing a hefty league suspension, and he had 1 year left on his contract. It was a pretty easy call to cut bait with him at that point. We weren't going to hand him a huge contract with his off-field history here.
And let's not act like teams were lining up to get him. At that time Green Bay was desperate for a RB and Ted Thompson, one of the more respected GMs in the league, wanted nothing to do with him. It created an awkward situation here where we were forced to actually start Marshawn for a few games to showcase him, which really confused our fan base.
Seattle gambled and won. Marshawn cleaned up his act and matured immensely - it's the classic "change of scenery" situation. He runs hard every time he touches the ball now. Kudos to him for getting his act together. But let's not pretend our record would be any different with him here.