Oakland Raiders: Either a match made in heaven or marriage from hell

The Oakland Raiders have some looming roster decisions to make with perhaps none bigger than deciding the fate of Marshawn Lynch.

The Oakland Raiders, with the opening of the free agency window looming, are going to have some big, and tough decisions to make. With limited cap space and a needs aplenty, they are going to have to be smart about how they address each one.

One of those big, tough decisions that will have to be made – sooner than most others – is the fate of running back Marshawn Lynch.

The speculation, conjecture, and opinions about Lynch’s future with the team has been flying since the season ended. And although both HC Jon Gruden and GM Reggie McKenzie have both said things that make it sound as if they’re all in with Lynch in 2018, that could still turn out to not be the case when all is said and done.

It’s hard to deny that Lynch was better over the last five or six of games in 2017 than he was over first ten or eleven.

Over the last five games of the season, Lynch ran for 434 yards on 84 carries for a healthy average of 5.2 yards per. He also had two touchdowns over those final five.

Compare that with the first eleven games of the year in which he ran for 457 yards on 123 carries for a very pedestrian 3.7 yards per carry, though he did have five scores.

It was a tale of two seasons – or rather, a tale of eleven and five games – for Lynch in 2017 that netted him a tick under 900 yards and seven scores on the year.

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Part of the problem was the way former OC Todd Downing deployed Lynch early on – which was not all that often at all. Note the correlation between the first eleven games when he averaged about eleven carries per game, and the final five when he averaged about seventeen per game.

Coincidence? Probably not.

Overall though, Oakland’s offense – its running game in particular – was pretty abysmal in 2017, slipping from the sixth-best rushing attack the previous season, all the way down to twenty-fifth.

Which, of course, considering the $6 million dollar cap hit he carries, combined with the overall ineffectiveness of the running game, and the reports that teammates were “tired of his act,” has led many to believe that Lynch is on his way out of the East Bay.

And the fact that Gruden is openly flirting with Buccaneers castoff Doug Martin – with reports emerging that the team is expected to make a “strong push” for him, not to mention that pending free agent Jerick McKinnon is also on the radar, could lend credence to the belief. That he doesn’t believe Lynch is all in with the program.

Or, he could just be doing his due diligence. That’s the thing about this time of year – you just never know what the truth is, and what might be #FakeNews

There is at least one person out there though, who thinks the pairing of Gruden with Lynch would be an “awesome marriage.” And that would be NFL Network’s Mike Silver, who appeared on 95.7’s The Game, to talk about it.

"“Those two don’t know each other very well or at least didn’t going in. I know both of them very well. I think Jon Gruden and Marshawn Lynch are really similar, like I think it could be an awesome marriage. They’re both kind of crazy, they’re both insanely competitive, they give a combined zero you-know-whats about what anyone else thinks. I feel like just knowing them as well as I do, it really could work well and I really want it to.”"

Silver is right about a few things. First, both are a bit crazy – or at least, a wee bit left of center. Both are insanely competitive – that’s true. And both absolutely give zero you-know-whats about what anybody thinks.

That much is all undeniably true. From that standpoint, they are very, very, very similar.

However – there’s an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. It’s the idea that two people who are so much alike will inevitably end up clashing, perhaps damaging a relationship irrevocably.

Which, of course, would have a very negative trickle-down effect on the rest of the team – a team that was rumored to be souring on Lynch to begin with.

Silver also doesn’t take into account the fact that the differences in their personalities could also hasten the demise of this “awesome marriage” and turn it into a terribly dysfunctional relationship that results in a horrible, nasty divorce.

Something that again, would have an adverse impact on this team.

Gruden is a taskmaster. He’s an unrepentant and unapologetic perfectionist — something he wants in all of his players. And Lynch — well — Lynch just isn’t wired that way. Like, at all.

And while Gruden doesn’t necessarily demand the carefully orchestrated and (micro)managed, rigidly enforced, bland, vanilla-ness that defines the, “Patriot Way,” he also isn’t one who is going to tolerate a player who puts himself above his team.

How do you think Gruden would have reacted to Lynch running on to the field – not to defend his teammates – but to comfort and protect Marcus Peters?

Odds are, it wouldn’t have set very well with the fiery, passionate, team-first guy that Gruden is.

But, that’s just who Lynch is. It’s who he’s always been and that’s not going to change. The man marches to the beat of his own drum – and although they may hit a few common notes, their overall rhythms are going to be very, very different.

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So, although on paper, it looks to Silver, and others disposed to his way of thinking, that the marriage between Lynch and Gruden would be, “awesome,” those of us in the more reality-based community know that it’s a train wreck just waiting to happen.

Things may start off just fine and run smoothly. Those common notes they hit syncing in perfect harmony. It’s seems likely only a matter of time though, before the stark differences between the two men emerge and those common notes are drowned out by the beat of the drum they actually march to.

It seems more likely a matter of when it all blows up. Not if.

There’s still no real telling which way the team is leaning, given the public statements about Lynch being in the plans. But, the public flirting with other running backs casts some level of doubt about his status.

We should know soon enough though. Lynch is due a roster bonus if he’s still on the roster eight days from now. It’s hard to see the team paying him a cool million and then cutting him. If a move is going to be made, it’s going to be made in the next week.

If Gruden keeps him, we’ll have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. We’ll have to hope that Silver is right and it really is a match made in heaven and both men flourish.

If it’s not though, this could be a marriage straight out of hell – one that could have a very adverse impact on a team trying to get right after a thoroughly disappointing and frustrating season.

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