Marshawn Lynch vs. Shaun Alexander: Who’s the best Seahawks running back of all

Look, there's really no need to compare Marshawn Lynch and Shaun Alexander. The Seattle Seahawks are lucky to have had them both. Really, it shouldn't make a difference. They played for entirely different coaches and went to entirely different Super Bowl s during entirely different eras, and I'm using the word entirely too much. Maybe I'm nervous. I like both of these guys, really. But it's quickly going to become clear who I think the best Seahawks running back was.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 nominees were announced on Wednesday, and a number of familiar names happened to be among them. Field Gulls' Mookie Alexander already covered them here , so I'll just skip ahead. Shaun Alexander and Marshawn Lynch are on the list. Alexander was first eligible in 2014. He has been nominated 9 out of 10 of those years but has yet to advance past the initial selection to become a semifinalist or finalist.

This is Marshawn's first year eligible and first year nominated. Shaun Alexander was not a first-ballot inductee. Should Marshawn be?

Let's get the numbers out of the way.

Shaun Alexander (Seahawks and Washington)

Regular season:

yards on the ground

yards in the air

Pro Bowls

League MVP

Postseason:

yards on the ground

Super Bowl appearance

Marshawn Lynch (Bills, Seahawks, and Raiders)

Regular season:

yards on the ground

yards in the air

Pro Bowls

Postseason:

yards on the ground

Super Bowl appearances

Super Bowl win

There you go. You've looked at the numbers; what have you decided? Oh, they both should be in the Hall of Fame? You're right. I agree with you. But for the purposes of this – and just for fun – we are attempting to decide who the best Seahawks running back of all time was. And whether Marshawn deserves to be inducted before Shaun.

So, what say you?

A player getting into the Hall of Fame is an ambiguously nebulous process that does not have quantifiable criteria. Sure, it's stats, but it could also be shoulder rubs on the sidelines, memorable catchphrases, and Madden covers. Certainly, a player needs to be good. But how good? Well, it turns out they need to be really good... beyond elite, even. Especially if they're a running back. They need to dominate.

The last two running backs inducted into the Hall of Fame were Edgerrin James in 2020 and LaDainian Tomlinson in 2017. They both advanced, while Shaun Alexander did not. Again, you can't just look at stats when talking about the Hall of Fame... but here are their stats anyway:

Edgerrin James(Colts, Cardinals, and Seahawks)

Regular Season:

yards on the ground

yards in the air

Pro Bowls

Postseason:

yards on the ground

Super Bowl appearance

LaDainian Tomlinson ( and Jets)

Regular season:

yards on the ground

yards in the air

Pro Bowls

League MVP

Postseason:

yards on the ground

Man, I'm a little upset with myself because I didn't want this to be all about stats. But here they all are, so let's talk about them for a moment. What jumps out at you first – just from these four guys? The first thing that jumps out at me is that they aren't all that dissimilar.

LT has a clear statistical advantage during the regular season, but his numbers go way down when you look at the postseason. His YPC drops from 4.3 during the regular season to 3.6 during the postseason. And the guy (through no fault of his own) never even had a Super Bowl appearance.

Edgerrin James made it to the Super Bowl with Arizona in 2009 but lost to the Steelers . James also wasn't particularly great in the postseason, rushing for 3.9 YPC.

Shaun Alexander really had a hell of a 2005 season – breaking the Seahawks rushing record, winning Offensive Player of the Year, NFL MVP, and making it all the way to the Super Bowl (and the Madden cover). His regular season YPC ranks right along LaDainian Tomlinson at 4.3. But his postseason YPC drops way down to 3.3.

There's no doubt that prime Shaun Alexander was a force to be reckoned with. With Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson plowing defenders for him, he really took advantage of the best offensive line Seattle ever had.

Marshawn? Well, he played 12 seasons. But the first three of them were in Buffalo... and he didn't quite get along there as well as he did here. He was famously traded early season 2010, and then things immediately started trending upward for the Beast. Remember this?

Marshawn had the greatest run in NFL history. And it was during his first postseason game ever. Of the above four guys (of which two are in the HoF), Marshawn has the best postseason stats with 12 touchdowns, 4.6 YPC (the only one of these four that goes UP during postseason play), two Super Bowl appearances, and one Super Bowl win. And a very real discussion could be had about how this very conversation would go if Darrell Bevell had just given him the damn ball at the end of Super Bowl 49.

But I don't want to talk about Super Bowl 49. I want to talk about the Beast Quake. It was awesome. Remember 2010? We'd made it to the playoffs during Pete's first year coaching with a 7-9 record. Our previous season under Jim Mora had left us out of the playoffs with a 5-11 record. And we weren't a very scary team. In fact, Jim Mora was actively and publicly campaigning for dirtbags .

Getting Carroll in 2010 was a good start, and trading for Lynch was even better. Making it to the playoffs was cool, but our record was 7-9, and no one really took us that seriously. Until Marshawn got the ball on 2nd and 10 in the fourth quarter of the NFC Wild Card Round. We were up by four points, but there was time left on the clock, and Drew Brees was more than ready to march down the field and win the game.

The Seahawks lined up in I formation, and Marshawn ran a 17-power straight up the gut. While manstomping Jabari Greer and tossing Tracy Porter over the hedges, Lynch couldn't have known that he was not only reshaping his own future but shaping the identity of the Seattle Seahawks. That run... that is when I knew that we were no longer the "Same ol' Seahawks" anymore. That's when we got mean. And I can't be the only one who knew it because everyone at Qwest famously caused an earthquake, jumping along in gleeful realization with me.

Along with Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch got physical with opposing teams. He was the boom on the offensive side of the ball. And two years after the Beast Quake, Seattle made it back to the Super Bowl. And won it, mightily.

Reshaping the image of Pacific Northwest football? That's one of those unquantifiable things.

I like Shaun Alexander. I remember watching him play. He made the best of a great situation. He was crafty and smart, and elusive... I think a lot of it was because he didn't like to take hits. He was about as different of a personality from Marshawn Lynch as you could engineer. And he was the second best running back in Seattle Seahawks history.

Hell, yes, Marshawn Lynch is the greatest Seattle Seahawk running back of all time, and he deserves to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.