On March 12, 2012, the Bears gave up two third-round draft picks to acquire Brandon Marshall. Three years later, on March 6, 2015, the Bears agreed in principle to trade Marshall to the Jets for a fifth round pick. The trade should come as no surprise. Ownership wanted him out and, new GM, Ryan Pace was aware of this during the hiring process.
Looking at this objectively, the trade make perfect sense and the timing of it was spot on. Given the current circumstance of the Chicago Bears, it was time to move on and here's why:
1. The cap space and salary cap
It was announced earlier this off-season that the 2015 salary cap in the NFL was going to be approximately $143 million. Before the trade of Marshall the Bears had roughly $28.6 million of cap space. If he passes his physical and the trade is successful, it will give the Bears another $4 million of space and bump up that total to $32.6 million (depending on other moves by the Bears). This gives the Bears some more financial flexibility to address the issues they have on the team....which happens to be a lot.
2. Redundancy at skilled positions
One of the main issues the Bears had on offense was the fact that teams schemed the Bears well and the counter scheming was not that great. It's not hard to game plan against an offense that has skill players that are the same...big, physical and good hands. Alshon Jeffery, Brandon Marshall, Martellus Bennett and Marquess Wilson are all big, physical and slower. The Bears need a burner or two. A speed guy with good hands that can take the top off a defense. Last year, defenses just sat back and played press coverage or double covered these guys. The problem was in creating separation and the QB (save that story for another day). This leads me to the next point....
3. Cheaper and/or younger alternatives
Marshall was clearly the odd man out. Out of all the guys that are considered "weapons" for this Bears offense, he was the highest paid and the oldest. Which means for any sports team or corporation...you're out. Alshon Jeffery is 25 years old and making $960,000. Marquess Wilson is 22 years old and making $585,000. Marcellus Bennett is 27 years old and making $4.9 million. Then we have Marshall, who will be 31 years old, making $7.5 million. Alshon Jeffery is at the end of his rookie contract and is about to get rewarded with big money soon. As of now, he's your #1 guy. The wide receiver class in this year's draft is deep! There is a lot of talent there and would be a younger and cheaper alternative for the Bears. Look what last year's draft produced: Sammy Watkins, Kelvin Benjamin, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Martavis Bryant, etc. For those of you interested, here is a good post by NFL.com on possible replacements for Marshall: Link
4. Rebuild and philosophy
It's not a mystery that the Bears will be going through a rebuild. Much like the Cubs have but I won't compare the two since it's apples and oranges. Ryan Pace has made it clear that they will explore any avenue necessary to bring the Bears back to prominence but let's be realistic. The Bears are going to be a draft heavy team. Just look at the Packers and Seahawks. They're going to go younger and cheaper and supplement the team with not flashy (I hope) but complementary free agent additions. They've already started stripping down the team off the aged veteran from the previous regime (Urlacher, Briggs, Peppers, etc.) Therefore, they need to accumulate draft picks since they only have 6 picks this year. Thus, the trade sending Marshall to the Jets benefits them. Marshall isn't apart of their long-term plan and like a car he's only going to depreciate in value. The Bears sold high and still only ended up with a fifth-round draft pick. Even so, any pick(s) they can get only helps them. The Bears' success going forward depends on how well they can draft. If they can string one or two solid drafts together, the turn around can be much faster. Need we be reminded that they haven't drafted with a high success rate in quite a while...
5. Distractions and locker room problem
2014 was an ugly season for Brandon Marshall. On the field, his performance was sub-par. He battled the injury bug, had a few issues with teammates and aired dirty laundry in public. It all started on September 18th when Marshall held an extremely awkward press conference about domestic violence and hashed up his previous encounters with it that left the Bears brass less then thrilled. Then on October 19th, Marshall voiced his displeasure in an outburst in the locker room following a loss to the Dolphins. If that wasn't bad enough, the following month he took to twitter and challenged a Lions fan to a fight and was willing to up $25,000 if the guy won. It doesn't end there, Marshall publicly called out Jay Cutler and questioned his contract. The final nail in the coffin came just last month after the new coaching staff and GM were in place. Marshall after asking for permission to continue appearing on "Inside the NFL" and being denied (according to reports), aired dirty laundry and asked John Harbaugh during Super Bowl week if he would allow Marshall to appear on "Inside the NFL" if he was playing for the Ravens. Jokingly or not, Marshall was still under contract with the Bears. Which is a huge NO-NO. We get it, Brandon...football is your platform, not your purpose BUT you're getting paid millions of dollars to play FOOTBALL for the Bears not prepare for life after it. The Bears didn't think this was funny and rightfully so...they're signing the checks. Ryan Pace and John Fox described it best "I will say regardless of who it is, I think their focus and energy needs to remain on what's going to help us win a championship."
Personally, I feel like Brandon Marshall's talent outweighs the distractions and that this move was an overreaction but hey....that's why I'm not the GM of the Chicago Bears or any football team for that matter. It probably even explains why my fantasy football teams suck.
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