Newly signed Seahawks receiver Brandon Marshall said Wednesday the ankle injury that ended his 2017 season with the New York Giants also gave him the chance to fix an older injury that had been bothersome for the previous two seasons.
Marshall said that he also had surgery to repair a toe injury that he first sustained during a game against the Oakland Raiders when he played for the New York Jets in 2015.
“My first year with the Jets, I hurt my toe in the Oakland game,” Marshall said. “Knew I needed surgery but it was one of those things where I was going to wait until I retire because a surgery like that it takes five, six, seven months to get back right. I didn’t want to lose my offseason so I was going to wait until I retire. When I snapped my ankle I said ‘well, I’ve got half of the season and then I’ve got the offseason so I might as well do it now.’ That’s the thing that took the longest. Right when I was released from the Giants (on April 19), probably a few days later I was able to run pain-free.
“I’ve been working ever since. I feel good. I don’t feel great. Obviously I’ve got a lot of catching up to do and get into some football shape.”
The toe injury didn’t seem to be prohibitive to Marshall being able to play. He didn’t miss a single game in 2015 despite the injury and finished the year with 1,502 receiving yards an 14 touchdowns. That also included 100-yard games in five of the last six games the Jets played that season and seven touchdowns over that span as well.
But the Seahawks will hope that with the ankle injury behind him and a bothersome toe now cleaned up as well, Marshall will be able to provide a significant boost to their receiving corps. Marshall knows that he has to prove he can still get the job done at 34 years old as well.
“I think the sentiment around the league is that I’m done,” he said. “And I get it, rightfully so. When you get on the other side of 30 (years old) and your production slips and you have a big injury, people just count you out. So it was an interesting process, a humbling process to say the least.”