Was last week's Divisional Round loss at Carolina the last ride of Marshawn Lynch's Seattle Seahawks career?
Lynch will be 30 years old next season, coming off a trying year in which he missed more games than he played and managed just one 100-yard rushing performance.
The Seahawks can save $6.5 million in salary-cap space by cutting Lynch and turning the backfield over to dynamic young power backThomas Rawls, who outplayed the declining veteran in 2015.
"I don't know how that's going to go," coach Pete Carroll said of Lynch's future, via The Seattle Times. "I don't know how any of these guys are going to go right now. I don't know."
That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for one of the most esteemed players in franchise history.
Lynch certainly won't be back under the $9 million salary he's due. Considering his checkered history with the front office and concurrent threats to retire the past two offseasons, he seems unlikely to accept a massive pay cut to return to Seattle.
Whereas Darrell Bevell's offense formerly relied upon Lynch's powerful legs in a ball-control attack, Russell Wilson took full ownership in the second half of the 2015 season, producing one of the most effective two-month stretches in NFL history.
It's especially telling that Wilson's passer rating was 33.7 points higherwithout Lynch in the lineup this season.
The Seahawks' coaching staff and personnel department will spend the rest of the month pouring over game tape in preparation for roster decisions at the start of the league year in March.
Salary repercussions aside, what they will discover is that they have a better chance to win next season with Rawls replacing Lynch.
