Top 50 Cal Pros: No. 8 - Marshawn Lynch, Beast Mode

Why we ranked him here: Chosen No. 12 in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft, Lynch played 12 seasons with Buffalo (2007-10), Seattle (2010-15, '19) and Oakland (2017-18). The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder rushed for 10,413 yards and scored 94 total touchdowns, landing on the NFL’s 2010’s All-Decade team. He was good from the start, rushing for more than 1,000 yards each of his first two seasons in Buffalo. Frustrated by several off-the-field situations, Buffalo traded Lynch to Seattle early in 2010. In the playoffs that season, he authored a 67-yard touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints that featured nine broken tackles and became known as Beast Quake. Over a four-year span from 2011-14 Lynch had the most touchdowns (56) and rushing yards (5,357) in the NFL, and scored 14 more rushing touchdowns (48) than any other back. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2012, a second-team choice in 2014. Lynch helped Seahawks crush Denver 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVII after the 2013 season. Seattle made it back to the Super Bowl the next year and might have won again, except for opting not to give Lynch the football from the 1-yard line with 26 seconds left. We all know what happened instead as the Patriots held on for a 28-24 victory. Lynch compiled 34 games of at least 100 rushing yards and was a five-time Pro Bowl selection before retiring due to injuries after two playoff games back in Seattle in 2019. He was not always easy, but he was entertaining and he was productive.

At Cal: Lynch was a four-star prospect out of Oakland Tech High School, which a year earlier produced Cal basketball star Leon Powe. He improved each of his three seasons in Berkeley on teams that assembled a record of 28-9, beat Stanford all three years and played in bowl games each season, winning two of them. As a freshman, Lynch totaled 775 yards from scrimmage, averaging 8.6 yards per touch and scoring 10 touchdowns. He rushed for 1,246 yards and scored 10 more TDs as a sophomore before leading the Pac-12 with 1,356 rushing yards and crossing the goal line 15 times as a junior. He was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and an All-American that season. Lynch wound up with 3,230 rushing yards and 35 total touchdowns in his Cal career. His most iconic moment at Cal came after rushing for 150 yards in an overtime victory vs. Washington in 2006 when he famously commandeered an equipment cart and weaved his way through fans and teammates on the field in a celebration. The moment  perhaps signaled the birth of “Beast Mode,” which eventually became the name of a store he opened in Oakland and a clothing brand.