In March, the Denver Broncos placed a second-round tender, worth just over $2.5 million for the year, on linebacker Brandon Marshall. Later that month, it was reported that Marshall, who had yet to sign that tender, may be skipping the Broncos offseason program to hold out for a long-term deal. In April, Marshall showed up to workouts and signed a waiver to be with his teammates without a contract. And finally, just a couple weeks ago, you guessed it, he showed up to OTAs, still without a contract.
It’s almost unheard of for a player to join his team during OTAs without a contact but Marshall thinks it would have been more shocking if he didn’t show up.
“I’m sure it didn’t surprise them that I was here,” the inside linebacker said Wednesday of his teammates. “It might have surprised them when they heard about me potentially not being here. That might have surprised them more.
“I think they all know that I want to be here,” he added. “They all know that I’m all about football, and I think they respect that. I think some of the coaches respect it. Some of the coaches have said something to me. I think they just respect it and I appreciate them for respecting me. I think we all have respect for each other. I think they know who I am and know what I’m all about.”
It’s extremely respectable, it’s the type of stuff that makes you a leader and—while unorthodox—it could actually turn out to help Marshall’s hopes of a long-term deal. Elway does, of course, love to say they want players who want to be Broncos.
Nobody wants to be a Bronco more than Brandon Marshall.
“They’ve treated me liked family here,” he explained. “When I was on practice squad, they didn’t treat me like I was on the practice squad. When I was in Jacksonville on the practice squad, you knew you were on the practice squad. They wouldn’t even let you come to the games on the sideline. It was crazy.
“From the whole organization’s standpoint—I haven’t been everywhere—but to me, it feels like it’s second to none. The President [and CEO], Joe Ellis, he’s very friendly. He comes to talk to us. He’s a good guy. I love it here. I think everybody has everybody’s best interest. We all want to win and I think we do it the right way.”
Marshall, winner of the 2015 Darrent Williams Good Guy Award, has become everything the Broncos could’ve dreamed and now he’s taking another step—becoming a leader.
“They look to me for guidance,” the four-year vet explained of his teammates. “That makes me feel good. It makes me feel special because for them to see me and think, ‘Okay, he’s a good player, so we’re going to ask him how he’s doing it. We’re going to ask him what should I have done here’. It makes me feel good.
“I’m definitely one to help out everybody,” added Marshall. “I talk to Todd [Davis], Corey [Nelson], Zaire [Anderson], Dwayne [Norman], Frank [Shannon]—I talk to them all the time. I tell them, ‘Maybe you should have done this right here’ or I ask them what did you see… I just try and coach them up a little bit, and they take to it. I think they respect my word and it means a lot.”
His teammates respect his word, will the front office respect his worth?
“I’m very optimistic,” said Marshall of the prospects of a long-term deal. “I would really love for that to happen.”
The Broncos are hoping to get long-term deals done with Marshall, Von Miller and Emmanuel Sanders by mid-July, right around the time Marshall expects to be fully healed from a finger surgery he underwent recently.
