Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch seemed on track to play all last week in the lead up to Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Then Lynch decided he wasn’t ready to play and didn’t make the trip to Minneapolis with the team on Friday.
So what is Lynch’s status for this week’s Divisional Round meeting with the Carolina Panthers?
“We’re just going to go one day at a time, see what happens, see how it goes,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “Get him out there practicing and see what that means. We don’t know yet.”
Lynch was a full participant in practice all last week before informing the team Friday afternoon he didn’t feel ready to play against the Vikings. It was Lynch’s first week back at practice after having abdominal surgery on Nov. 25 and spending several weeks away from the team in the Bay Area to do rehab work.
Carroll said that Lynch didn’t suffer a setback in his recovery, he just didn’t feel he was going to be able to play after going through the week of practice.
“He just didn’t feel like he could go. He really didn’t have the confidence that he would be able to go,” Carroll said. "...He needs to feel that he can do (all the special) things and even though he can run fast and look like he’s moving, he didn’t have the confidence that he could go out there, react to guys and do all that yet. There’s nothing we can do about that.”
Whether Lynch will be able to find the confidence needed with another week of practice remains to be seen. Lynch hasn’t played since Nov. 15 against the Arizona Cardinals. He has 417 yards on 111 carries this season with three touchdowns for Seattle.