Brandon Marshall is now a free agent and is free to choose his next team in the NFL after he was released this past week from the New York Jets.
Could he be looking to stay in the same area? If the change of his Instagram account picture is any hint of that, then he might have the New York Giants in his sights.
With his release from the Jets, Brandon Marshall changed his picture this past week to a player holding the Lombardi Trophy, which makes sense because that’s the one thing that has alluded him in his NFL career. But it’s the actual picture itself that has people buzzing.
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Marshall’s picture is of former New York Giants wide receiver Devin Thomas from Super Bowl XLVI; Thomas just so happens to wear number 15, which is Marshall’s number as well.
The Giants, fresh off an 11-5 season and their first playoff appearance since 2011, are in contention to be a playoff contender again in 2017 and would meet Marshall’s criteria of wanting to play for a contender. Earlier in the week, it had been reported that Marshall and the New England Patriots had mutual interest and recently retired NFL wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. advocated for Brandon Marshall to join the Baltimore Ravens.
The Giants make sense for Marshall; that is if he’s willing to take a little less money than he thinks he’s worth; he was due $7.5 million this past season from the Jets, but with the Jets in a full re-build mode, there was no chance that he was getting that from them and his release seemed inevitable.
With Jason Pierre-Paul’s franchise tag placement, the Giants currently have around $14 million in salary cap space and with needs on the team like the offensive line and tight end, a wide receiver looking for his old salary doesn’t top the priority list for the Giants.
However, if Marshall is looking to take less money to stick around the New York and New Jersey area and play for a contending team, then the Giants are a team that makes sense. Playing alongside Odell Beckham Jr. and the amount of coverage he gets on a weekly basis could certainly free Marshall up for one-on-one coverage and a boost in his production could certainly happen; Marshall did have a down season this past season, but part of that could be attributed to the revolving door that was at quarterback for the Jets in the 2016 season with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith and Bryce Petty all starting at one time and the reason for that was due to the struggles by Fitzpatrick.
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Even though he’s at an older age, Eli Manning will still be the Giants quarterback going forward and something that won’t be an issue for the team unlike what the Jets had to go through; veteran receivers like Marshall generally like stability at the quarterback position, especially when it’s a former Super Bowl MVP who’s still playing at a high level and something that could interest Marshall.
With free agency set to start this week, Marshall and his camp will start to formulate a game plan on where he’ll want to play next year and likely pick a team next season that will give him a chance at winning a Super Bowl.
Will it be the New York Giants? Only time will tell.