Brandon Marshall’s unhappiness with the Broncos is a story that never goes away; some days are just quieter than others.
Wednesday was not one of those quiet days.
Marshall “disengaged” from practice Wednesday, standing on the sidelines with the defense because he’s “not close” to learning the playbook.
After failing to take any snaps during the 11-on-11 portion of practice, Marshall talked about the latest issue in his relationship with the team. Marshall is upset with how a public relations staffer handled the aftermath of his acquittal last week from misdemeanor battery charges.
“I think the biggest thing was, it was really disappointing hearing that some of my teammates on one of the best days of . . . for the past three years, of my life, some of my teammates were coached to say ‘Don’t say you’re happy for Brandon,’” Marshall said.
Broncos coach Josh McDaniels tried to explain his side, however vaguely:
“Some things you can’t control, and that situation, we feel like we tried to handle that the best we could after that came up,” McDaniels said. “Just trying to get everyone’s mind back on football and practice and doing what we need to do to get ready for Seattle.”
Marshall denies asking for more money in a meeting with the front office Monday, but wouldn’t speak about a possible trade request. He was asked if there were irreconcilable differences between him and the club.
“Unfortunately, sometimes it gets to that point,” Marshall said. “There are trust issues on both sides. It’s understandable. We’ve got to try our best to move forward.”
Marshall seems torn halfway between becoming a huge problem for the team and realizing it may not get him anywhere.
“I’m a Bronco and all I can do now is do my best to get in my best football shape and be that player I was the past three years,” he said.
For now, Marshall is practicing primarily with the scout team and his participation in training camp is in some strange purgatory between fully practicing and skipping work. It’s unclear what role he will have in the team’s second preseason game.
Marshall says he’s healthy, but is behind mentally. (Insert editor’s note here.) There are legitimate questions whether he’ll be ready to start in Week One or if the Broncos will let him.
The only safe bet: we’ll have plenty of updates on the situation in the meantime.