MONEY. Him sitting will mean HE’S holding out which means he won’t be getting paid, which is what all of this is really about. And why, for the most part, any comparisons to the Cutler situation are slightly misguided. Marshall loves the game and wants to play, but I seriously doubt he will be cheering for losses or itching to play simply because we’re winning. He’ll want to play because he loves the game (and I suspect his teammates), BUT…. a HUGE motivating factor will be that he’s not getting paid week in and week out. And because sitting out a contract year after a hip surgery that can be difficult to recover from on top of several highly publicized off the field issues will certainly do nothing to get him a large contract next season. Although I think any contracts moving forward (with any team) will be laden with clauses (much like Travis Henry) that protect the Broncos (or any team) financially against any further suspensions or legal troubles.

The point is, as has been stated, the Broncos have ALL of the leverage here. I agree that having a player holdout is never a good thing as far as team distractions go, but you still have to do what’s best for the team in the long run. And caving to his demands either with a fat new contract or a trade that isn’t more than equitable for the Broncos, just doesn’t make sense. I don’t want a player here who doesn’t want to be here either, but I’m not sure that’s really the case…..at least not yet. I also don’t mind him asking for more money, but he needs to go about it in a MUCH better and more professional manner (i.e. see Casey Wiegmann).

If he continues to hold out, and we start inching closer and closer to training camp and maybe even the season, AND we find we can get solid value for him (and I mean something pretty darn decent), then I say make the deal. Management doesn’t care about appeasing Marshall, they care about fielding a winning football team from players who want to be here.

As far as the precedent and the Cutler blueprint and what not, I think that is a bit overrated and overblown. Not to say it’s not somewhat of a factor, but each of the players and their situations are very different. The choice of a player to simply sit, ignore phone calls and pout their way out of town, whether because of money or hurt feelings or whatever, is not exactly unprecedented. It’s happened to just about every team at one time or another. You deal with each situation differently and based on that moment, player, team, etc and do what’s best for your football team. There isn’t all of a sudden this blueprint for getting what you want as a player and that somehow Cutler was the first to discover this. If it had been in our best interest to keep Cutler, then he’d still be Bronco. If it’s in our best interest to keep Marshall, then he’ll remain a Bronco. I guarantee both would/will eventually (have) play(ed) if the Broncos didn’t/don’t grant their individual requests because the individual player have too much to lose. A team is more than any one player and can and will survive. However, the player only has a finite amount of time to play and make his money and he’s not going to waste a significant portion of it sitting at home watching his team play without him while also not getting paid. It does happen from time to time, but players holding out for a significant amount of time AND then getting what they want is INCREDIBLY rare. And I don’t see it happening in the case of Marshall either. Even John Elway, who did all but say to Bowlen “it’s me or Reeves”, was kept because Bowlen felt that was the best move for the franchise. It wasn’t to appease Elway. If he thought Elway was the reason for the team’s Super Bowl failures and could trade him for a ton of picks and players (which he could have), then Elway would’ve been gone. It happened to be the right decision for THAT particular situation, but it wasn’t to appease any particular player or coach.

I have a feeling they’re already looking at trade options for Marshall simply because it would be prudent to do so, but that nothing will happen (based on demand at this time of year) until training camp. Then we’ll see how serious Marshall is about sitting and how serious other teams are about making an offer for him. Then, if he still holds out and there are not trade offers we like, I think the Broncos will say, “Fine, stay home. We’ll be just fine without you.” Personally I hope it’s worked out and Marshall stays, but I’m a Broncos fan first and a players fan second.

• Sorry, I know this was a little long. Sometimes I just get on a roll and can’t stop. :-)