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ALAMEDA — The locker room was clearing out, and Raiders coach Jon Gruden, holding a game ball tossed to him by defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, was making his way out of when he saw a solitary figure sitting in a chair in front of his locker.

Gruden walked up to Marshawn Lynch, extended his hand, and the two exchanged a few words after the Raiders’ 45-42 win over the Cleveland Browns Sunday.

Lynch lives life in a protective bubble of his own making. Everything is done on his terms. Off the field, Lynch is rooted in his hometown of Oakland and has a knack for smart business decisions. On it, Lynch attacks the opposition with malice aforethought. If Mike Tyson was in his prime played football, he would be Marshawn Lynch.

And Lynch isn’t in his prime, or shouldn’t be. He’s 32 years old — ancient for a running back, and even more remarkable when you consider he’s made a career out of seeking head-on collisions.

Yet after rushing for 130 yards on 20 carries against the Browns, his biggest day since 2014, Lynch has 300 yards in four games. It’s a 1,200-yard pace which would put Lynch near the standard he set from 2011 through 2014 with the Seattle Seahawks when he rushed for 5,537 yards and scored 48 touchdowns.

“If that’s not a Hall of Fame back, I don’t know what is, honestly,” Gruden said Monday at his weekly press conference. “What he did yesterday and what he’s done since he’s been here has been incredible.”

Gruden’s relationship with Lynch is in contrast with the one he has with quarterback Derek Carr, who is entrusted with running the offense. Gruden and Carr discuss everything. When it comes to Lynch, Gruden does what many linebackers and defensive backs wish they could do and simply gets out of the way.

In practice each week, Lynch does his pre-practice stretching a good distance from the rest of the team, and nobody seems to mind. He has almost nothing to say to the media, and nobody seems to mind. He doesn’t stand for the national anthem and it’s not a story because Lynch won’t discuss it.

According to Profootballfocus.com figures, Lynch has forced 20 missed tackles, five more than anyone else in the NFL. And he’s not doing it with evasive action, given that an incredible 254 of his 300 yards have come after contact.

In the Raiders’ opening drive of the season, Lynch carried half the Rams’ defense into the end zone on a 10-yard run. He bruised and battered the Browns Sunday, his day ignited by a nifty quick toss pitch that gained 52 yards and helped put Cleveland on its heels.

Lynch lost 69 yards on a first-half play when he took a shotgun handoff from Carr, ran to his left, broke two tackles and set sail down the sideline for an apparent 75-yard run. A quick whistle turned it in to a 6-yard gain. Lynch punted the football in frustration, and no flag was thrown as officials probably realized they’d jumped the gun by stopping the NFL’s best tackle-breaking runner for no apparent reason.

“Why would you have a quick whistle with Marshawn Lynch?,” Gruden said. “I don’t understand how you can blow a whistle like they did yesterday, but some of the runs he’s making, some of the determination he is putting on tape is unbelievable. I don’t see many guys in football running like this.”

Gruden could have just as easily said “any” as “many,” because you probably have to go back to Walter Payton or Earl Campbell to find a running back who left defenders strewn in his wake as consistently as Lynch.

With Lynch, there’s always the possibility of friendly fire with his own linemen.

“Oh yeah, get out of the way,” rookie tackle Brandon Parker said. “He told us that. He’ll run us over.”

Lynch has been so good he has forced Gruden to rethink his philosophy of multiple backs. He’s always had an affinity for straight-line power backs like Tyrone Wheatley, Zack Crockett, Mike Alstott and Michael Pittman.

Yet Gruden also likes to keep runners fresh, have other options based on down and distance. The plan this season was for Lynch to share the load with Doug Martin, and utilize Jalen Richard in passing situations.

But Lynch has been so good, and that includes his ability to deliver a blow in pass blocking to blitzing linebackers and safeties, Gruden has more or less turned him loose. Through four games last season, Lynch had 45 carries for 151 yards. He’s nearly doubled that output this season on 68 carries.

“I just keep patting him on the back, `Hey, you ready to go?,” Gruden said. “I check on him periodically and when he can’t go, we go to Doug.”

The whole vibe is different than a year ago when Lynch returned to Oakland in what was seen in part as a publicity move to soothe hometown fans reeling from their team’s eventual departure to Las Vegas.

The “Beastmode” camera crew which followed Lynch around during training camp and during the week has been less ubiquitous. When the Raiders fell to 0-3, Lynch stood at his locker in Miami and spoke to the mainstream media for the first time in more than a year, essentially expressing confidence in the teammates and his coaching staff.

Early in the Browns game, which had a rough start along the line of scrimmage, Lynch got the offensive linemen together for a colorful pep talk.

“He basically said we were putting the game on our backs,” rookie left tackle Kolton Miller said. “They’re running behind us; it starts with us. He gave us some encouraging words. He said, `I’m going to run with y’all,’ and it really boosted us.”

Defensive end Bruce Irvin, also a teammate in Seattle, said Lynch is selective about when he chooses to speak.

“Marshawn only talks when stuff is really bad,” Irvin said. “I’ve only seen him rally the guys together a couple times in Seattle, but you know when the Beast needs to say something, he’s going to say it. Obviously, it worked. We got out of here with a win.”