Time to Bid Brandon Adieu

do you have a link by any chance?

But you knew that… ;)

What I’m spending my offseason doing — while others are preparing mock drafts and the like — is looking back at 2009 to see if I can discern patterns that contributed to our slide in the last 10 games.

though I must admit that the more I see the MSM portraying Marshall as a “possession” receiver, the less confident I am that we’ll get a good deal for him.

Which is one of the reasons, I find myself wondering if McDaniels benched him in the hopes that he can “rehabilitate” Marshall ala Randy Moss.

Despite his 2nd DUI, he’s also the team’s best receiver by far. Age has permitted him to surpass A. Gates, IMO. Like Marshall, he is a danger with his legal issues (although Marshall is much more so, historically). Jackson has now been cited for driving with expired plates and no license while on probation for his second DUI – I guess he and Marshall have a lot in common….

Someone will bite on him. He put together quite a highlight reel this season. Making all those cowboys miss, and all those 1 handed catches in and after the Giants game have to excite owners like ….. hmmmm….. Al Davis. Either way, I think Dever still has the leverage. If we don’t get what we want for him, he’s in the same boat as last year: at the mercy of his cance to perform.

…is there seems to be some evidence that BM isn’t a game changer. He wows everybody with the occasional incredible catch or long run, but more often he runs laterally and leaves yards on the field, and the routes he excel’s at (hooks, digs, etc) leave him stationary, where he lacks the burst to then pull away from defenders. His big games, more often than not, result in losses. This was true with Cutler, too. His YpC as a starter has never exceeded 13 per game, and has gone down at least a yard each season since. That’s not all on QB, scheme, et al— its partly on D’s figuring out how to contain him— which isn’t hard when a guy doesn’t make a lot of plays on the move or with his back to the QB. Tackle well, mitigate BM. It doesn’t help him that Gaffney hung 200 yards receiving replacing him against KC, as it presents the argument that even a journeyman can be uberproductive in that role in the McD scheme.

There is no doubt that he is productive (just moving the chains adds up) and would be an asset to most teams— but he wants game changer money. Coupled with CBA uncertainty, some questionable locker room dynamics, and the fact that he has no screw-up rope left with the league makes him far more appealing in Denver than anywhere else.

But while he’s here, I think there’s a tendency to want to lean on him as the primary threat. Thus, my contention that perhaps, the offense would be better served by moving him on — something which he has stated on numerous occasions that he wants.

I have a hunch that you may find the trend of lack of production to be a system-wide symptom of play calling/gametime conditions.

Simply singling out Marshall shows that he trends a certain way while the entire offense might trend the same way.

In any case, this is insightful, interesting stuff, and I appreciate you work in putting it together. It’ll be interesting to see the Marshall saga play out.

I find thjis one odd and I wonder if anyone did some research (My hands aren’t going to let me this week). One of the constant praises of Orton for a while was that he spread the ball to so many. Did that change greatly?

and it very well could be, then I think McD needs to run more plays where Marshall isn’t the first read.

As Bonaire pointed out, the smaller amount of time to throw, meant shorter, quicker routes, which would definitely impact both the number of passes thrown and the yards per catch.

I put it on the ability of receivers to get open. Eddie could not get open if he was the only player on the field this year, and he was in MOST packages, so by default, Orton checked down to the WR with the most of chance of making a catch, and NOT creating a turnover. That would be Marshall who is a great possession receiver and whose body shields the ball from turn overs.
The routes ran by the other guys were a bit high risk, and required MORE time that our O line could not give Orton. Marshall’s success was predicated ob him being the safety valve on the majority of plays due to a variety of factors. It is not as simple as placing the requirement of spreading the ball at Orton’s feet…..it requires a lot of things to happen right first!

trust boydy to keep us all on the straight & narrow