Jets: Early impressions on Brandon Marshall

By Ryan Mayer | Oct 3, 2015

Wide receiver Brandon Marshall has proven he’s still a top receiver and brings a great dimension on offense for the Jets.

During this year’s off-season, the Jets have seen a lot of changes for the better with the new regime coming into town. The Jets’ offense received upgrade after upgrade when new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey came into town. The Jets’ offense has been the butt of every NFL fan’s joke over the past couple of years. It seems like no matter how good the team could possibly be, one cog in the machine would fall apart causing the Jets to completely fall apart.

One of the biggest cogs that has been missing is a one true No. 1 wide receiver on the team that can shine when needed. Many fans hoped last season that former Broncos’ wide receiver Eric Decker was the answer to the question “Who is the Jets No. 1 receiver?”

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By the end of the season, analysts and fans alike could agree that Decker was not able to be that guy, however, he is a very elite No. 2 receiver.

The long asked question of “Who is the Jets No. 1 receiver?” was answered a day prior to free agency opening up. New Jets’ general manager Mike Maccagnan completed a trade for arguably one of the best big receivers in the league in Marshall.

Marshall is one of the most productive receivers in the league having over 1,000 yards a season for seven seasons out of his nine-year career. His addition to the team immediately makes the offense go from a laughing stock to an offense that looks like it can compete with the best the NFL has to offer.

It has been three games with this new team and Marshall has been one of the highlights of the team so far. He has truly shown his dominance against well known defenses and how he is the go-to guy if the team is looking to score. In the first game of the season, Marshall came out ready to play against the Cleveland Browns.

He was a force to be reckon with and ended the game with 6 catches for 62 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 10.3 yards a catch and caused one of the offenses turnovers to go in the favor of the Jets. During a play where journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a bad interception, Marshall ran up to the defender and ripped the ball from his hands overturning the interception and gaining yards on the play.

Sep 21, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New York Jets receiver Brandon Marshall (15) carries the ball during a NFL game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Jets defeated the Colts 20-7. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

In Marshall’s second game when the Jets took on the Indianapolis Colts, Marshall continued to show how he truly is a No. 1 receiver by having caught 7 catches of 10 targets for a 101 yard game. Marshall averaged 14.4 yards and had a touchdown.

In Marshall’s last game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he had 10 catches of 14 attempts for 109 yards. He averaged 10.9 yards and a touchdown. One stat to look at is that Marshall has had a touchdown in every game so far this season for the Jets. Most of the touchdowns he caught so far has also come off from him dominating the cornerback where they were not an issue at all for him.

In the end there is still plenty of football to play in this season. However, Marshall has already proven that he is still the top receiver everyone knows him to be and that he has so far been a great acquisition by the Jets.

In just 3 games he already has three touchdowns and 272 yards. With 13 games left in the season you can only look to have Marshall improve on these statistics, which will make every Jets fan even happier with the trade for Marshall. This could possibly can go down as the best trade in 2015 due to the Jets only giving up a 5th round pick and the Jets picking up Marshall and a 7th round pick. He’s returned the investment back quite nicely.

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