Marshawn Lynch is now with the Oakland Raiders

IT’S HAPPENING HAPPENED! Marshawn Lynch is officially back in the NFL and coming to a Raiders’ game near you.

The move shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as the mutual interest between Lynch and the Raiders has been widely publicized. With starting back Latavius Murray signing with the Vikings this offseason, Oakland was in need of a starting caliber running back. For Lynch, he was only willing to come out of retirement to play for his hometown Raiders. A match made in heaven.

It will be interesting to see how much skittles Lynch still has left in the bag. Let’s hope he has a similar return to glory like Brett Favre after his second retirement instead of Brett Favre after his first.

Fantasy wise, this signing could be huge. Like groundbreaking, forget-everything-you’ve-ever-seen-about-ADPs-and-draft-strategy huge. Lynch is no stranger to the fantasy dominance and the Raiders are no stranger to producing fantasy running backs.

Looking back over Lynch’s fantasy history, it’s actually stunning how dominant he was in Seattle. Between 2011 (when he joined the Seahawks) and 2014 (his last healthy season), Lynch finished every year a top 5 running back in fantasy. He never scored under 200 total fantasy points and was the third best fantasy player in football in 2014. So clearly had this signing/trade/move been made directly following his 2014 season, Lynch could be the #1 pick in this year’s draft. However, Lynch is coming out of retirement and the last time we saw him in the NFL, he played only seven games and managed a dismal 70 total fantasy points in that time. That’s like, 10 points a game!

The pieces are all there in Oakland for Lynch to return to fantasy glory: they have a phenomenal offensive line, they’re in need of a starting running back and they love to run the football in the red zone. The question will ultimately boil down to how Beast Mode-y does Beast Mode look. If he looks good, he has RB1 written all over him.