Late last night, I wrote up a piece discussing Buffalo’s seemingly desperate attempt to drum up interest in running back Marshawn Lynch, who had clearly fallen out of favor with the Bills coaching staff and served no purpose in remaining with the club at this point.

I expected Buffalo to continue those efforts right up to the October 19th trade deadline, but I did not believe a deal would be finalized as long as the Bills refused to budge from their demand of a third round pick back in return for Lynch.

That prognostication proved to be partially true, as Buffalo’s front office found a willing trade partner in Seattle, earlier this afternoon, but were unable to extricate the compensation they preferred, and settled for receiving a fourth round pick in next year’s draft along with a conditional pick the year after.

Obviously, it’s just one move out of many that the Bills have to make to resurrect their proud franchise from the NFL’s cellar, but this deal definitely bodes well for the future of the club in that it showed the ability of general manager Buddy Nix to know when to cut his losses and move on.

Lynch is still young by most standards at age 24, but the arrival of fellow running back C.J. Spiller last spring was a death knell of sorts, as Buffalo clearly had no desire to move forward with Lynch as their featured back and tried in vain to move him throughout the off-season.

The Seahawks now have a formidable one-two punch at running back in Lynch and Justin Forsett who has the speed and elusiveness to complement Lynch’s style of play, especially on third down.

Time will tell which player will get the majority of the carries in the future for Seattle, but given Lynch’s demonstrated ability to be a premier rusher in the league, it’s almost a certainty that he will be the one who takes on the biggest load in the coming years.

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