Seahawks rookie Thomas Rawls making a strong case to take baton from Marshawn Lynch

The promise of the Seattle’s future stood next to the fragility of its present on Sunday.

That had nothing to do with San Francisco’s feint at a second-half rally or the worries of another fourth-quarter fade in Seattle.

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The running back no one saw coming took a step toward stardom on the same day the player Seattle would hate to see leave had a shadow of uncertainty cast over the rest of his season.

After a game in which rookie Thomas Rawls ran for more yards than the San Francisco 49ers have ever allowed, Seattle’s coach announced that Marshawn Lynch will travel Monday to Philadelphia to have his abdominal injury evaluated by Dr. William Meyers.

And just like that, the Seahawks are facing a most unexpected uncertainty at one of the most important positions on Pete Carroll’s team: Who’s best suited to carry Seattle as it tries to make a run the playoffs?

The bad news: It might not be Lynch. He was inactive for Sunday’s game because of an injury and is headed to the same doctor who performed surgery to repair two sports hernias on Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano. While Carroll didn’t speculate on the likelihood Lynch’s season could be over, he didn’t rule it out, either.

“This will be a really important couple days for him,” Carroll said of Lynch. “We’ll know something by Wednesday probably.”

The good news for Seattle: For the first time since Lynch’s arrival in 2010, the team has a young back who looks capable of carrying the baton whenever Lynch should pass it. In fact, it was impossible to watch Rawls rush for 209 yards on Sunday as Lynch missed the game without wondering whether the pecking order may change sooner rather than later.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Carroll said. “Right now, Thomas did a good job. Marshawn has been our runner for a long time around here.”

Diplomatic. But in three starts Rawls has now ran for more than 150 yards twice. His 209 yards against San Francisco were the second-most for a Seahawk in any game in franchise history and most ever for a rookie.

He was physical. He was explosive. And when he turned upfield in the first quarter and ran into and then over 49ers cornerback Tramaine Brock, Rawls showed that hard-ball attitude that Carroll considers a prerequisite for his running backs.

“He will attack guys downfield,” Carroll said. “That was the first impression I got about Thomas. It’s why I liked him from the start. He has that mentality about him.”

Rawls is the kind of guy who’ll choose to stay in bounds to deliver a lick rather than stepping out to avoid one. It’s a mentality embodied by Lynch in his six seasons in Seattle, and while it’s unfair to compare Rawls to the back who gained more than 1,200 yards in four successive seasons, it was impossible to watch the way he ran Sunday without using that as a reference point.

“He’s quicker,” Fred Jackson said of Rawls. “He’s a little bit more shifty than Marshawn. He can get in and out of cuts fast, but he likes to beat you up, too. He likes to bring the pain to you.”

That is exactly what Lynch has done since he was acquired from Buffalo. And for three years now, Lynch’s longevity has been a source of speculation with people wondering whether a running back who administered and absorbed so much punishment would continue to thrive even as he approached 30.

The bill may be coming due in that regard. Sunday was the third game Lynch has missed this season. The first two were for a strained hamstring, and now there’s the abdominal injury.

But even as Seattle’s situation at running back was cast into doubt, the promise of Rawls’ future helped ease the concerns.