The Denver Broncos signed linebacker Brandon Marshall to a four-year, $32 million contract on Tuesday, but for Marshall, the road to success was a long one.
After being cut three times by the 2-14 Jaguars of 2012, Marshall said he still thinks about those moments often.
“Absolutely. Three times — twice in one week,” Marshall said in a press conference on Tuesday. “I had a coach tell me that he didn’t know if I was cut out for the NFL. All that ran through my mind. It ran through my mind each and every day as I was working. I was out there practicing, I was lifting weights — that’s my chip. That’s the biggest chip I have because people doubted me. I try to find new chips each year to keep me going, but that’s the biggest.”
Marshall may be a millionaire now, but when he was in Jacksonville, after being cut a third time, he thought it could be all over.
“[I] got to St. Augustine, and the whole drive I was just thinking, ‘What am I going to do now? What am I going to do next?'” Marshall said. “So as I was taking this drive, I was feeling bad for myself, feeling sorry for myself. But then I turned around and I said, you know what, I’m going to keep working. That’s what I told myself. If I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out on my terms. Because I feel like I almost switched my game up, to fit what they liked.”
Playing by his own terms has been going pretty well for the successful linebacker who has since recorded 171 tackles over the last two seasons for the Broncos.
The Jaguars never expected him to blossom the way he did, but Marshall isn’t stopping just yet.
“I definitely want to make the Pro Bowl, All-Pro,” said Marshall. “Those have always been my goals. I think what has always driven me is not necessarily the cash, not necessarily the money. Even when I was a kid, I just wanted to be the best.”
