The dreaded unretirement conversation of Marshawn Lynch

[ThePops]

Hey gang. Great site! I was hoping for your feedback and opinion. I am in a 10 team dynasty, its been a really cool league. 25 man roster, no alternate roster spots. Straight up add/drop. Well the question came up of what do we do as a league with the Marshawn Lynch situation. The team that owned him prior to retirement requested to the league that he should be able to retain him now that he is back as a current player, much like the Seattle Seahawks retained his rights and had to release him. Even though he wasnt rostered on the 53 man Seattle roster, they still had ownership rights to his playing status. As mentioned we do not retain alternate spots for suspensions, IR, retirements etc so for a league of 10 I kind of think its silly to say we should keep retired people on roster in the case of a come back since it happens literally once every 10-15 years, but I guess thats is a debate topic too. Another fly in the ointment is the site we use I believe deleted him from the player pool at the end of 2015 at least until late last year when the rumor mill became abuzz of his return, but i am not positive of that and dont think Id be able to find out. I am very much in favor of allowing the manager to retain his rights and not have him enter the free agent pool before our rookie draft. I commish other leagues too so I definitely want to make sure I communicate as much as possible to be fair to everyone.

Am I being fair to believe that we should treat it the same way as the nfl and let the previous owner retain his right, and at least allow him to make the decision if he wants to keep/release/trade him?
Thanks again.

[skip]

This exact question has already been discussed here. The owner does not retain rights. Simple as that.

[IBall2]

He should be added back into the free agent/rookie pool for anybody to pick up. Comparing his contractual situation with the Seahawks to our fantasy football world is apples to oranges.

[Ruggenater]

The only way you keep the rights to a player is if you roster said player. Either add him to the FA pool or to the players eligible to be drafted in your rookie draft.

[IR1]

Don't see any option other than FA. Guess prior owner could argue that he would have kept him if he had been able to.

[Weeman]

If you want to own Justin Blackmon tell the commish & leave a spot open. Lynch was available to be owned. This owner dropped him & that was when his ownership of Lynch ended. You can't allow him to have josh gordon, cjohnson, ect & exceed the roster limits. That wouldn't be fair to the rest of the league. Put him in the draft & let the owner cry about it.

You allow him to retain rights. Then ooh I wouldnt have dropped DGB but now that he's here ect will happen. It sucks for him but we all drop players of value & this is part of the game.

[Tsunami]

Unless you are on some really crappy website like ESPN that erases league history every year, you should be able to go back and see if this owner dropped Lynch. If he was dropped he should be a free agent. If he simply disappeared then it isn't the owner's fault. You could make the case that he should have protested or kept an empty roster spot but that's asking a lot if there's no specific rule in your league for this.

If he was dropped he was dropped, your league has no provision for inactive players not counting on the roster so that should include retirees.

[FiremanEd]

If not in the bylaws then absolutely not. You own the players on your roster. Plain and simple.

[RB6]

Owner does not have rights to Lynch if he dropped him. Lynch goes back to the FA pool/rookie draft.

[nathanq42]

In the league I commission we agreed that if a player retires you keep his rights (which I personally prefer), just so that guys that own players like Brett favre dont get screwed. But if it isnt pre discussed I think he should go back to FA. Plus my league has 4 reserve slots

[DDT]

You may find it silly to roster retired guys but Lynch was, in fact, rostered in a lot of my leagues before he returned. And Calvin Johnson is currently rostered in a lot of leagues right now. If you're willing to burn a spot holding onto the guy, you get rewarded when he returns. If you drop him to take a flyer on someone else, you get in line with everyone else. It's the only reasonable result.

Just to illustrate why. Let's say that he dropped Lynch and picked up someone like Tyrell Williams or Terrell Pryor. What do you do then?
Does he get Lynch but can drop anyone?
Does he get Lynch but has to drop the guy he picked up (i.e. Tyrell or Terrell)?
And if it's the second, is he forced to take back Lynch and return the guy that he picked up? In other words, even if he prefers Tyrell or Terrell, is he required to take back Lynch?

You get into too much of a grey area on issues like this so it's best to require people to honor their prior decisions.

[pierson242]

If not in the bylaws then absolutely not. You own the players on your roster. Plain and simple.

Exactly

[Novacane]

This is not even a close call IMO. Lynch is treated like any other free agent.

[DrNoish]

Yep, unless it's a contract league with guidelines or regular dynasty with guidelines about this I'd say back into FA. If he wants him he can trade up for him or overdraft like many others.