QUOTE: "The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary." -- Thomas Edison
MY NFL NETWORK VIDEO ON--The Denver Broncos said they’re aware of a radio report that said holdout receiver Brandon Marshall asked team owner Pat Bowlen for a trade during a meeting Friday.
Marshall is one of the most talented players I’ve been around in my 23-year career attending practices and scouting players. He has great size, power, speed, burst, acceleration in and out of his cuts and very powerful, consistent hands. He is raw, just learning the game, and as Mike Shanahan has said many times, he has room for improvement. Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers said, "Brandon Marshall is a defensive lineman playing wide receiver. He wants to inflict punishment on you. He wants you to try to tackle him so he can shove you off of him and get more yards” -- a perfect description of his talents when he has the ball in his hands. Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said Marshall is "the toughest guy to bring down, one-on-one”.
So why are the Broncos having trouble with Marshall?
APMarshall is looking for a new deal
Back in the ‘80s, when Bruce Springsteen was dealing with some personal issues, he penned a song called “Two Faces.” It dealt with his struggles within himself -- the good Bruce, the bad Bruce and the Bruce he wanted to be. One of the lines in the song is, “One does things I don’t understand, that make me feel like half a man.” Those words the Boss wrote might well apply to Mr. Marshall.
There are two Brandon Marshalls -- the one on the field, who is as good as any wide receiver in the NFL, and the one off the field, who seems to migrate to trouble. The off-the-field Marshall has kept him from reaching his true value since college -- maybe even since high school. (Not many 3A triple jump champions with his size and speed in high school. In fact, the triple jump is a great tool to evaluate speed -- like an airplane, it takes speed to create lift-off and great speed to create distance upon lift-off.)
Two fair questions might be, ”How was this talent available to the Broncos in the fourth round? And was the rest of the NFL that poor in its evaluations?” The answers to both can be found in the off-the-field Marshall. He was a fourth rounder in large part because teams worried about his character, how he would react to fame and fortune. No one ever questioned his talent; everyone questioned his maturity.
The landscape of the NFL favors the Broncos but makes Marshall bitter in his attempts to get a new deal. My sources in Denver have told me the team does not want to trade him; it would rather deal with the problem. The landscape of the NFL today favors the Broncos because even though Marshall is entering his fourth season, he will not be a free agent next year because of the uncapped year. Free agency in an uncapped year requires six years of service, which means the Broncos would hold his rights for two more years at a very favorable economic number. So in essence, the “Marshall June saga” is very similar to the Cardinals’ “Anquan Boldin April saga” -- both good players with great deals. Why would clubs want to trade those commodities?
AP
All the complaining and screaming is not going to help Marshall receive a new deal. In fact, it shows the rest of the league that he has yet to mature. In spite of all his talent, he’s a time bomb waiting to explode -- so problems of the past never seem to go away. His actions are in full view of the NFL; in fact, many teams are probably going back to their college reports to refresh their memories of how immature Marshall was in college. Your past will never escape you, especially when you want to make heavy coin.
Marshall has seen players in Denver rob the organization of money, from Travis Henry, who came to Denver with a host of off-the-field problems he never shed, to Daryl Gardner, who did the same. The Broncos have wasted more money on marginal players with questionable talent that it’s finally made them change their ways of operation. The difference between Marshall and the Broncos is that the Broncos have seemed to learn from their past mistakes, while Marshall still has not matured.
I left the Broncos after the 2007 season believing that the only person who could keep Marshall from being a star was Marshall himself. As I sit here two years later, nothing has changed. There are still doubts – and with doubts come apprehension about paying a big salary.
If Marshall were to remove the doubts, he would gain his reward. Can he do it? If you believe as I do -- that past performance predicts future achievement -- Marshall would make you feel very nervous about his ability to change his behavior.
First off, I was on the road all day yesterday so this is my first look at the redesign. Well done, fellas. About 3,000 times better. Can't say enough about it.
The Marshall thing is weird when we look at it through the McDaniels-Patriots scope - where his former team once won three championships with wide receivers like Deion Branch and Troy Brown, but then had the best offense we've ever seen once they got some real talented wideouts. Does McDaniels think he can win without a big physical guy like Marshall? Or does he see the value in getting on the same page with him?
Mike always talks about the importance of getting everyone on page into the team's system. Cutler couldn't do it and he's now gone. Now Marshall could go. But from a fan's standpoint, shouldn't we all be thanking the Broncos for all the fun they've provided us this offseason?
I'm getting really tired of my team shedding pro-bowlers. I was actually giong to get DirectTV this year to watch Cutler all year, as this was going to be a big year for him...Now I'm not getting it because I'm not paying a few hundred clams to watch Orton lead my guys to 4 wins. Well, that was before this: if we lose our other pro-bowler, we'll be lucky to win 4.
Why can't this freaking kid just grow the hell up? How hard is it to walk away from a woman who's going off on you? Are all the broken tackles and abused CBs not proof enough that you're a tough guy? Does winning a fight with your loony girlfriends really outweigh the millions you WOULD have been given by now in an extension if you stayed out of trouble?
Just another moron athlete that can't stand to walk away from confrontation. Get a punching bag and a room with a big lock on it. When your girls get in your face, walk away, go into your room, lock it, turn on some music and go to town on the bag. I'm preeeeeeeetty certain you don't get arrested regardless of how bad you beat that bag.
Michael,
Good article, BUT you need to STOP referencing The Boss. His career is over and you should act accordingly.
Mozart, Beethoven and Bach's careers are also over, so everyone should act accordingly and never mention or play their music again.
Keep up the good work, Michael.
So the Bronco put his hoof in his mouth, he didn't shoot himself in the leg before doing it.
The real reason he wants to go elsehwere, he could probably set a career high for TD in a game against his own team's corners.
Terry,
That is either a really funny post or giving Mozart a bad name.
Fascinating article which answered many questions about Mr. Marshall.
Good comment Terry.
When it comes to "player X is demanding a trade for reasons Y", I tend to side with the team. Generally speaking, I think that players are at fault for their own contractual problems because they too often focus on getting paid right now instead of signing a solid contract that pays them well deep into their career. IMO, if a player really wants to get max money, they should sign 1-year after 1-year deal, getting top dollar as long as they perform well and don't get hurt. When a contract that made you a top-5 paid player 3 years ago isn't so special anymore, I don't care.
But this Brandon Marshall situation is different to me. As with Cutler, the issue of maturity is being brought to the forefront. Clearly, with off the field issues, Marshall is a bit of a bone-head. But this is a unique situation in my eyes.
At the end of the 2008 regular season, Marshall was (statistically) one of the best WRs in the league. He was catching balls from one of the most talented QBs in the league; a rising star to hitch a ride on, and a young pairing that could only get better as time moved forward. He was playing for a Hall-of-Fame coach, a Superbowl winner. He was a key cog in one of the best offenses in the league. And he was entering the final year of his deal, probably with the hopes of negotiating a contract extension that would land him big dollars and keep him in Denver.
Now? Coach; gone. Cutler; gone. Offense; a giant question mark. If he does want to stay in Denver, he has to start from square one and impress his head coach. If they want, they can leave him hanging and possibly miss FA until after the 2010 season. Even if they let him go or trade him, he's going to be playing with Kyle Orton in an offense that could reduce his numbers greatly. Considering that his next contract will probably be the biggest one he'll ever sign and monetarily define his career, can you blame him for looking around and wondering how a dip in production could be taking years and dollars off his next deal?
I can't.
I hope the Bronco's just continue to do what they've been doing in recent years and hand the division over to the Chargers. They are either having really bad luck with players lately, or management is an issue. Who fires Shanahan? Who trades franchise QB? Who doesn't pay a very young stud WR who is the only all-pro caliber player on roster? 3 big strikes this offseason. 8-8 will take a lot of luck this year, proly more like 6-10 when its all done.
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Jun 17, 2009
09:25 AM
Great article Mike -- one of your best to date. I always knew Marshall was a talent, but this made me realize just how much talent he's waisting.