Marshawn Lynch should take note of LeSean McCoy’s pending trade

Running backs don’t necessarily come cheap in today’s NFL.

Seattle’s offer to Marshawn Lynch – a deal that would reportedly pay him as much as $12 million in 2015 – demonstrates that. That would put him atop the payscale for his position along with LeSean McCoy and Adrian Peterson, both of whom are under contract to make more than $10 million next year.

That doesn’t mean teams are lining up for the privilege of paying that kind of money to a running back, however, even when that running back is one of the best in the business.

McCoy is certainly that. All he’s done in his six years with Philadelphia is surpass 1,000 yards rushing in four different seasons and top 1,300 yards in three of the past four. If you’re asked to rank the top running backs in the league, there’s no way you can get past No. 4 without listing McCoy. No way.

And yet on Tuesday, it was reported the Eagles will trade McCoy to Buffalo for a linebacker. A really good linebacker, actually, in Kiko Alonso, but a linebacker just the same, and one who didn’t play at all last season while recovering from a torn knee ligament.

Now, some people have said that shows you what a running back is worth in today’s NFL, and that’s not exactly right because contracts matter. Alonso is halfway through the four-year deal he received as a second-round pick in 2013 while McCoy is playing on a top-shelf deal for a running back.

What the trade showed – and this is where other running backs, most notably Lynch, should pay attention – is how few teams truly want to pay big money at that position.

McCoy was offered up to the league. Arizona coach Bruce Arians said as much the day after the trade. And McCoy should have been a prize. After all, he’s shifty and elusive, and if Seattle has shown anything the past three years, it’s how far a running back can carry you.

It’s the kind of scenario that you would think could precipitate a bidding war, and yet no team was willing to offer anything more than an talented linebacker coming off a knee injury for the privilege of paying one of the league’s best running backs one of the league’s bigger salaries at that position.

In Philadelphia, this may turn out to be an act of hubris. For the second straight offseason, coach Chip Kelly has let go of one of his more talented – albeit expensive – players on offense.

But to running backs across the league, this should be a cautionary tale. Teams are not exactly clamoring for a chance to pay players at that position $10 million or more a season. Not like they are with quarterbacks. Heck, not like they are with receivers.

And that brings us back to Lynch, who negotiated his current deal three years ago under the threat of being affixed with the franchise tag. He never got a chance to taste free agency, to see what other teams would offer. Three years later, the Seahawks are offering a raise on the final season of that deal.

If he’s still uncertain about accepting it, he should look no further than McCoy’s trade to see that teams aren’t exactly lining up to pay a running back – even one of the best – that kind of money.

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