photo credit: chris.corwin
The Denver Broncos put up a first-round qualifying offer on Brandon Marshall. In making these tenders the Broncos are signalling that they would like to keep their team together, but they aren’t going to push too hard.
They also gave a 1st and 3rd round tender to Elvis Dumervil…which means they REALLY want to keep him! Frankly, I can’t blame them since he was the breakout star on the defensive side of the ball last across the league.
I read somewhere that putting a 1st-round tender on Marshall might make him easier to trade, but I don’t think that’s it. Putting anything on him DOES give the club recourse if someone else wants to sign him, but I think they secretly want to hold on to him anyways.
It’s kind of like when “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” are standing at the edge of that cliff and Butch says “I ain’t never killed nobody” and Sundance says, “Well, I can’t swim”.
Only in the heat of the moment will everyone’s true feelings come out. When the rubber hits the road I bet we’ll see that the Broncos can’t “kill” Marshall by getting rid of him and Marshall will realize he doesn’t want to try to stay afloat somewhere else.
This isn’t an issue that requires deep philosophical thought, but they sort of need each other. Marshall keeps the Broncos in the news, and they need him to keep catching the ball. Marshall probably feels like the Broncos are the only team he could ever play for so he’ll only push SO far. Not actually to the edge of reason…even though it may seem he really wants to leave…he can’t do it.
This is a marriage made in the NFL everyday, but it usually doesn’t get this much press. Team needs player AND player needs team at the same time. Ah, how sports make such strange bedfellows…
