PFF ranks Marshawn Lynch the No. 8 best player in the NFL

There isn’t a running back in the NFL today that can overcome poor run blocking quite like Marshawn Lynch . . . .

The rate at which Lynch breaks tackles is simply staggering. His 88 missed tackles were the most in the NFL by a margin of 21 over the next closest, Murray, and 13 higher than the previous PFF single-season record that Lynch himself held. When you include the postseason, the numbers are mind-boggling. In three playoff games, the Seahawks’ runner broke 29 more total tackles, the same number Jeremy Hill broke on 235 carries over the course of the entire season. For the year, he posted an utterly silly 104.2 Elusive Rating which is the highest single-season number we’ve seen.

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https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... awn-lynch/

That's awesome sauce :th2thumbs:

give him the damn ball

Best.

Yeah..........hes pretty good.

Only 8th?

SacHawk2.0":3o65reto said:

Only 8th?

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Based on what he accomplished last year, I would put him 2nd behind only J.J. Watt. If this is a future projection, then I wouldn't have a big problem with No. 8, given Marshawn's age and back problems, until I saw some of the guys they had the audacity to rank ahead of Marshawn:

Antonio Brown . . . fewer TDs (14 vs. 17) and not as dominant when it mattered.

Chris Harris and Vontae Davis . . . LOL.

It's great to have him on the team!

Not looking forward to his retirement one bit.

BEAST!

I love how Lynch has overtaken AP as the NFL's best back in eyes of the public. He deserves it.

My only nitpick with PFF's essay is the narrative of Seattle's run blocking being bad. Robert Turbin averaged 4.2 YPC, Christine Michael had 5.1 YPC, and Russell Wilson averaged over 8 yards per carry on designed runs. FO has given consistently high marks to Seattle's run blocking.

As the top comment points out, Lynch was an average RB by PFF's own scoring system before Wilson and Cable showed up. And after that point, he's been sensational. It was the day that Lynch approached Cable about learning to run better in the system that his career really started to take off in 2011. Lynch is the NFL's best RB, he's very special. But Seattle's running game would still be good even without him. Not historically good like it is now, but good.

The bad run blocking narrative isn't correct, but if it helps Lynch's reputation then I guess that's probably a good thing. Whatever it takes to get Lynch in the HoF some day, it's all fine by me.

kearly":35e780lh said:

The narrative of Seattle's run blocking being bad is off the mark. Robert Turbin averaged 4.2 YPC, Christine Michael had 5.1 YPC, and Russell Wilson averaged over 8 yards per carry on designed runs. FO has given consistently high marks to Seattle's run blocking. But if such a narrative helps Lynch's reputation then I guess that's probably a good thing.

As the top comment points out, Lynch was an average RB by PFF's own scoring system before Wilson and Cable showed up. And after that point, he's been sensational. It was the day that Lynch approached Cable about learning to run better in the system that his career really started to take off in 2011.

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PFF is one of the few services that grades each offensive lineman on a per play basis. That is supposed to take the emotion out the evaluation process. Of course, PFF's grading system is far from infallible, but it does give us a general idea of how the performance of our offensive line last year compared to the rest of the league -- in that regard, they have our offensive line's run blocking ranked 21st. In particular, Carpenter and Bailey continued to struggle quite a lot as run blockers. Jeanpierre and Lewis were huge downgrades as run blockers in comparison to Unger. Okung and Sweezy, known to be tough run blockers, were radically inconsistent last year. Britt, as a rookie, was the one true bright spot for the line's run blocking. I think we can expect some improvement on runs to the right side next year, but center and left guard remain huge issues to resolve.

He has made this offense go for several years now and is still the most important piece. The difference when he came between plays for 0 yards compared to 3-4 is staggering. Those don't show up on the score sheet as important but they keep drives going.

Good thing we didn't hand him the ball to win the Super Bowl...

hawknation2015":1mxlnjn5 said:

kearly":1mxlnjn5 said:

The narrative of Seattle's run blocking being bad is off the mark. Robert Turbin averaged 4.2 YPC, Christine Michael had 5.1 YPC, and Russell Wilson averaged over 8 yards per carry on designed runs. FO has given consistently high marks to Seattle's run blocking. But if such a narrative helps Lynch's reputation then I guess that's probably a good thing.

As the top comment points out, Lynch was an average RB by PFF's own scoring system before Wilson and Cable showed up. And after that point, he's been sensational. It was the day that Lynch approached Cable about learning to run better in the system that his career really started to take off in 2011.

Click to expand...

PFF is one of the few services that grades each offensive lineman on a per play basis. That is supposed to take the emotion out the evaluation process. Of course, PFF's grading system is far from infallible, but it does give us a general idea of how the performance of our offensive line last year compared to the rest of the league -- in that regard, they have our offensive line's run blocking ranked 21st. In particular, Carpenter and Bailey continued to struggle quite a lot as run blockers. Jeanpierre and Lewis were huge downgrades as run blockers in comparison to Unger. Okung and Sweezy, known to be tough run blockers, were radically inconsistent last year. Britt, as a rookie, was the one true bright spot for the line's run blocking. I think we can expect some improvement on runs to the right side next year, but center and left guard remain huge issues to resolve.

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Until PFF actually goes public with their methodology, it's impossible for me to take their grading system seriously.

brettb3":rpbln6qw said:

hawknation2015":rpbln6qw said:

kearly":rpbln6qw said:

The narrative of Seattle's run blocking being bad is off the mark. Robert Turbin averaged 4.2 YPC, Christine Michael had 5.1 YPC, and Russell Wilson averaged over 8 yards per carry on designed runs. FO has given consistently high marks to Seattle's run blocking. But if such a narrative helps Lynch's reputation then I guess that's probably a good thing.

As the top comment points out, Lynch was an average RB by PFF's own scoring system before Wilson and Cable showed up. And after that point, he's been sensational. It was the day that Lynch approached Cable about learning to run better in the system that his career really started to take off in 2011.

Click to expand...

PFF is one of the few services that grades each offensive lineman on a per play basis. That is supposed to take the emotion out the evaluation process. Of course, PFF's grading system is far from infallible, but it does give us a general idea of how the performance of our offensive line last year compared to the rest of the league -- in that regard, they have our offensive line's run blocking ranked 21st. In particular, Carpenter and Bailey continued to struggle quite a lot as run blockers. Jeanpierre and Lewis were huge downgrades as run blockers in comparison to Unger. Okung and Sweezy, known to be tough run blockers, were radically inconsistent last year. Britt, as a rookie, was the one true bright spot for the line's run blocking. I think we can expect some improvement on runs to the right side next year, but center and left guard remain huge issues to resolve.

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Until PFF actually goes public with their methodology, it's impossible for me to take their grading system seriously.

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I look at it as just another unofficial source of evaluation, slightly above the anonymous opinions on this message board. Until teams decide to release their own grades, it remains one of the best sources we have for this kind of aggregate evaluation. And while I tend to disagree with their grades at times, if you have followed their grades over the years and compared it to your own analysis of a player's performance in a given game, for the most part, they do a decent job at capturing the big picture of a player's performance in an individual game.

The fact that Lynch had to break so many more tackles than any other RB over the last two years is partly a reflection of the line's mediocre run blocking.

hawknation2015":1ioegus6 said:

The fact that Lynch had to break so many more tackles than any other RB over the last two years is partly a reflection of the line's mediocre run blocking.

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I don't think that's true. On virtually every running play a tackle is going to be attempted. Whether that happens at the line of scrimmage or 3 yards down field is more important.

By breaking tackles you are setting yourself up for more tackle breaking opportunities. Lets say Lynch carries it 300 times and breaks the first tackle 50 times. He now has 50 more tackle breaking opportunities. If he breaks any of those it adds even more opportunities.

Compare that with another running back who carries it 300 times and breaks zero tackles. He has significantly less opportunities because he sucks at breaking tackles. That doesn't tell you anything about his line though.

Now if that second running back averages 5 yards a carry, then his line must be awesome and the stat would tell you something but I don't think looking strictly at broken tackles tells you anything other than letting you know the running back is a beast.

bigtrain21":3cqm74ur said:

hawknation2015":3cqm74ur said:

The fact that Lynch had to break so many more tackles than any other RB over the last two years is partly a reflection of the line's mediocre run blocking.

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I don't think that's true. On virtually every running play a tackle is going to be attempted. Whether that happens at the line of scrimmage or 3 yards down field is more important.

By breaking tackles you are setting yourself up for more tackle breaking opportunities. Lets say Lynch carries it 300 times and breaks the first tackle 50 times. He now has 50 more tackle breaking opportunities. If he breaks any of those it adds even more opportunities.

Compare that with another running back who carries it 300 times and breaks zero tackles. He has significantly less opportunities because he sucks at breaking tackles. That doesn't tell you anything about his line though.

Now if that second running back averages 5 yards a carry, then his line must be awesome and the stat would tell you something but I don't think looking strictly at broken tackles tells you anything other than letting you know the running back is a beast.

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That's exactly why I said it is "partly a reflection" of the line's play. Of course, not every tackle broken is by a defender who should have been blocked, but many of them are. Lynch has so many more broken tackles than anyone else, in part, because he had more opportunities to break tackles due to mediocre line play.

hawknation2015":3h2xqyqv said:

Lynch has so many more broken tackles than anyone else, in part, because he had more opportunities to break tackles due to mediocre line play.

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He has more opportunities to break tackles because he is good at breaking tackles. A tackle is attempted on almost every running play, regardless of how good the line is.

bigtrain21":1a2an9w3 said:

hawknation2015":1a2an9w3 said:

Lynch has so many more broken tackles than anyone else, in part, because he had more opportunities to break tackles due to mediocre line play.

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He has more opportunities to break tackles because he is good at breaking tackles. A tackle is attempted on almost every running play, regardless of how good the line is.

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Here, as an example, you have last year's rookie RT Justin Britt, normally very good at finishing blocks, who allows the edge defender to disengage and thereby attempt a tackle on Lynch. If Britt finishes this block, then Lynch would not have even had the opportunity to break this first tackle. With better blocking, perhaps from a more experienced player, there would have been only one broken tackle on this play instead of two.

hawknation2015":1e92y21w said:

bigtrain21":1e92y21w said:

hawknation2015":1e92y21w said:

Lynch has so many more broken tackles than anyone else, in part, because he had more opportunities to break tackles due to mediocre line play.

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He has more opportunities to break tackles because he is good at breaking tackles. A tackle is attempted on almost every running play, regardless of how good the line is.

Click to expand...

Here, as an example, you have last year's rookie RT Justin Britt, normally very good at finishing blocks, who allows the edge defender to disengage and thereby attempt a tackle on Lynch. If Britt finishes this block, then Lynch would not have even had the opportunity to break this first tackle. With better blocking, perhaps from a more experienced player, there would have been only one broken tackle on this play instead of two.

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Okay first off by breaking the first tackle that gave him another opportunity to break another tackle so by virtue of being a beast he sets himself up to break more tackles.

Second, you don't really think one play from an entire season has anything to do with this discussion do you? Every single running back has examples of a lineman disengaging too quickly. If I posted a .gif of marshawn going untouched into the endzone and said it was proof of great run blocking you wouldn't pay very much credence to it would you?

Did you title that .gif?