http://chicagofootball.com/2015/03/06/hub-arkush-brandon-marshall-trade-addition-by-subtraction/a360rmf/
Hub Arkush: Brandon Marshall trade addition by subtraction
The bottom line on the Chicago Bears trade of Brandon Marshall to the New York Jets is it’s addition by subtraction regardless of what the mid-to-late round draft choice compensation is, and the Bears are the big winners.
Marshall’s presence had become more than a distraction to his coaches, teammates and the Bears front office. He was like a cloud hanging over the team and the inescapable stamp of dysfunction put on it by former general manager Phil Emery.
Yes, Marshall was an All-Pro in terms of production and individual honors and will probably continue to be one of the top five pass catchers in the NFL.
But exactly how many wins and trips to the playoffs did that translate to for the Bears?
In fact, how many wins and playoff trips has it translated to for any of the three teams he has played with over his nine-year NFL career?
You got it, zero and zero.
Pro football is the ultimate team sport and Marshall is as serious a team-buster as I’ve seen in 37 years covering the game. He has demonstrated a half-life of about two or three seasons with any team he’s been with – Marshall was injured a good part of his rookie campaign in Denver – and the outcome is always the same.
The reasons are sensitive and difficult to discuss while trying to remain fair to Marshall, who may not be a bad person.
The Marshall we’ve seen in Chicago has actually been a good person but a bad teammate due to his self diagnosed and proclaimed mental illness. Mental illness is as difficult a disease or combination of diseases as there are to deal with. Marshall clearly suffers from some form or another and for that he deserves our sympathy, not our scorn.
But the reason I have to qualify him as perhaps not a bad person is in the early years of his career he compiled a record of domestic abuse of women that rivals almost any we’ve seen in the NFL recently.
He seems to have found an answer to that problem with no new incidents for a number of years now, but it’s in the eyes of the beholders as to whether that can ever be forgotten or a person with that record can be a good man.
The real problem with Marshall today is there are many folks who struggle with mental illness and find ways to become good people and good teammates. Marshall is nowhere near there yet.
His constant need for the spotlight, often at the expense of teammates and the team, and me–first attitude about everything creates an impossible environment in the locker room, on the sidelines, and in the huddle. That is why he absolutely had to go.
Here is the most important part of all of this and it’s the really good news. New general manager and head coach Ryan Pace and John Fox get it.
It appeared obvious in the tone and between the lines of most of their comments that the business of healing their football team couldn’t begin with Marshall here, and now they’ve wasted no time in getting the job done.
Yes, it leaves the Bears now in need of number one and number three receivers. But there are plenty of free agents like the recently wooed Brian Hartline who can be fine threes, and if ever there was a draft to find a number one this could be it.
Recent trends have suggested West Virginia’s Kevin White could come off the board first and Alabama’s Amari Cooper could slip to seven. Marshall for Cooper and a draft pick, that’s a trade I’ll make every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
And Marshall fans don’t despair. I have no idea what new Jets GM Mike Maccagnan could be thinking but Marshall is in the Big Apple where he obviously wanted to be, and now in the same locker room with Percy Harvin and Geno Smith.
The folks at TMZ and the National Enquirer must have all died and gone to Heaven.
