NFL: Brandon Marshall at a Crossroads in His Career
After four consecutive non-winning seasons and one of the worst passing attacks in the league, the New York Jets had a one of the biggest offseasons of any NFL team.
Outside of improving their defense with notable free agent signings like Antonio Cromartie and Darrelle Revis, the Jets also traded with the Chicago Bears for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Geno Smith has struggled to live up to expectations with the Jets, so this appears to be a good move.
But, for whatever reason, Marshall's career has a negative trend to it. Whenever he leaves a team, they become better, and whenever he joins a team they become worse.
Let's take a look.
Marshall began his career with the Denver Broncos after they drafted him in the fourth round in 2006. The previous three seasons before Marshall arrived in Denver, the Broncos made the playoffs. As a matter of fact, the Broncos were one game away from the Super Bowl in 2005 thanks to their elite 13-3 record, just one year before Marshall was on the roster.
Marshall would play for the Broncos the next four seasons as the team compiled a 32-32 record in that time span. The Broncos never did make the playoffs with Marshall; however just two years after he was traded to the Miami Dolphins, the Broncos did make the postseason. That was in 2011 when Tim Tebow led the Broncos to a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos have made the playoffs the last four consecutive seasons.
With the Dolphins, success didn't occur in Miami either. In his two seasons with the Dolphins, Marshall played great receiving over 1,000 yards in both years, but the Dolphins never won more than seven games with him. Again, Marshall was traded. Which begs the question, why would such a great player be traded so many times (now three time) in his prime before the age of 30?
This time Marshall found himself in the City of Brotherly Love with the Chicago Bears. Cutler was reunited with Jay Cutler, and many NFL experts believed the two would take the NFC North by storm. Unfortunately for Bears fans, that wasn't the case. The Bears had just made the NFC Championship game in 2010 without Marshall in their locker room. With Marshall on the roster in Chicago for three seasons, the Bears failed to make the playoffs, win the division even once, and had a 23-25 record since acquiring him.
Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe Marshall is just unlucky. There's no real hard solid evidence that suggests Marshall is a terrible teammate, and he's never been involved in a horrible incident with one of his teams like Terrell Owens was with the Philadelphia Eagles or San Francisco 49ers. But, for whatever reason, Marshall's teams just never seem to win, and the team's he leaves get better.
Marshall has never once made the playoffs in his nine-year career.
Now, there may be some good news here, specifically for Jets fans. Usually a team gets worse when Marshall joins the roster; however the Jets can't get much worse. The Jets haven't made the playoffs since 2010, which is also the last time they even had a winning record. Maybe this NFL curse will work the other way around this time. Maybe the Jets will make the playoffs, and we will see Marshall in the postseason for the first in his career.
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