When the Bills deemed Marshawn Lynch expendable early in the 2010 season, it was fair to speculate that the embattled running back didn’t have much of a future in the league. He already had multiple run-ins with the law, showed only flashes of starting talent as a back, and doctors were concerned that congenital back issues would shorten his career.

Now, in his first clash against Buffalo since the trade, Lynch is thriving as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. As Fox News points out, Lynch trails only Adrian Peterson for the NFL lead in rushing yards and needs only three more TDs to match his career-high. “Beast Mode” is coming off a three touchdown performance in Seattle’s 58-0 shellacking of Arizona, a blowout in which he played little more than a half of football.

Asked about his coming match-up against the NFL team that drafted him, the usually-outspoken Lynch declined to comment to the Seattle News Tribune:

“I’m good, boss,” Lynch said.

Once again, Lynch let others do the talking for him.

“He’s not shy,” joked Seattle defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, who played with Lynch at Cal. “If he acts shy, he’s frontin’ – it’s a front. He ain’t shy at all.”

Maybe Marshawn wants to avoid trouble or doesn’t want to give the resurgent Bills defense any reason to target him. There’s also a strong chance that his memories of Buffalo aren’t especially fond, a time in his life that he’d rather not harken back to. The YouTube video from the Kenny Mayne Show below feels like a very, very long time ago now:

Do you still pull for Marshawn Lynch, or did his hit-and-run incident in 2008 forever sour your view of the dread-locked running back from Cal? Those memories will flood the minds of Bills fans as they watch Lynch try to steamroll the Buffalo run defense at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Poor Tracy Porter.

(Header photo courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks Facebook page).