After a stellar first season with the Bears in 2012, it’s easy to forget that receiver Brandon Marshall has been, at times, a bit of a handful on his past teams.
Bears fans recently have gotten a refresher course on that subject.
While Marshall insists via Twitter that he’ll play Week One when the Bengals come to town, Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times had made the case for concern when it comes to Marshall, who received a four-day excused leave of absence only one day after complaining about his recovery from hip surgery, his role in the offense, and a vague notion that the team is pushing him to return faster than he’s able.
As Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune has pointed out, Marshall said on June 4 that he’s “100 percent,” and that the team is “holding me back” from doing more in offseason workouts.
As explained by David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune, the more significant problem for now is the hip, not Marshall’s past propensity for problems unrelated to football.
Marshall himself, despite declaring that he’ll play in Week One, has told the Tribune, “My hip is not recovered the way I need it.”
Either way, it’s bad news for the Bears, who need a strong contribution from Marshall if the team is going to compete for the playoff berth it wasn’t able to secure despite Marshall’s 1,508-yard debut season with the team.