Potential trade partners surfacing in the potential race for Marshall's services
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It reads like a TMZ report – Brandon Marshall (in rumor) is linked to every team in the league right now, including the team who currently holds him under contract. A quick survey of the news shows rumors that Marshall could be headed to the Seahawks, the Ravens, the Browns, the Bears, the Redskins… need I go on?
The reality is this: Marshall only gets traded if McDaniels gets what he wants from the deal. If McDaniels has made anything clear, it’s that he is in charge… and that if keeping Marshall around and putting him on the bench is what he deems best for the team, he’s not afraid to do it.
For most of the season, Marshall seemed to have had his “come to Jesus” moment. He even hugged McDaniels in the first quarter of the season when wins were plentiful. But as the season ended, we all know what transpired, at least in the public eye. Marshall sat for the final game, a coach’s decision based on “attitude”. Marshall not-so-quietly took his time standing in the corner, then played the Pro Bowl in Miami, possibly his last game as a Bronco. In his sideline interview, he claimed to “love the city of Denver”, and to want to finish his career where it started. Someone give a cookie to the PR staff that coached that little nugget out of him.
Complicating the whole matter is the current labor situation in the NFL… with an uncapped season coming, a restricted free agent of Marshall’s caliber is not quite as likely to get a cascade of offers, especially a team like Denver who, with Pat Bowlen writing the checks, is less likely to suffer from an uncapped season as some more cash-strapped teams. The only way Marshall leaves is by trade, and with Marshall being perceived as a “problem child”, it’s difficult to see a team opening up the trade-bait coffers to wrangle him in.
In an interview this weekend, Bowlen claimed to want Marshall to stay. If he were pressed, I think McDaniels would say the same thing. Everyone in the league is hoping they can be the ones to pry him away, and take advantage of some top-tier talent that can maybe be obtained on the cheap.
Someone is going to pay Marshall an amount commensurate for his services, and my suspicion is that he’ll be a happy employee of whichever owner is signing the massive checks, even if the name on the bottom line is Pat Bowlen. Which makes me ask the question – why not Denver? Why not pay the man his money (as Teddy KGB would say), and let him put up his monstrous numbers here?
