Salary Cap

Is Marshall’s price tag falling?

by Brian McFarland

February 24, 2010
4:00 am

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A recent ESPN Insider report indicated that the Denver Broncos may be willing to trade WR Brandon Marshall for as little as a 2nd round draft pick. This news was met with great interest from many Ravens fans who view Marshall as the answer to the Ravens’ wide receiver woes.

Still, many are under the mistaken impression that the Ravens, as a Final 8 team, are not able to trade for a player of Marshall’s pedigree or sign him to a long term deal that would violate the Final 8 restrictions. Happily for the Ravens, those restrictions only apply to UFAs, not RFAs (like Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Miles Austin) or players currently under contract (like Anquan Boldin or Dwayne Bowe).

The trade provisions of the Final 8 Plan are only in place to prevent teams from attempting to circumvent the Final 8 restrictions by trading for a player, who it would have otherwise been unable to sign as a UFA, after that player has signed with another team first.

Still, there are (at least) two major factors working against the Ravens:

Even if the Broncos have decided to trade Marshall, they are under no real time table to do so, other than completing the trade before the draft. The Broncos may well decide that they can get a better deal on draft day. So, even if the Ravens are interested and have made the best offer, there’s no guaranty that the Broncos will move quickly enough for the Ravens’ taste. It may well come to pass that the Ravens would be forced to move on to other options if the Broncos wait too long.

If the Broncos are willing to accept a 2nd round pick, the Ravens hold the 25th pick of the round. One other team – the New England Patriots – has already reported to be interested in Marshall, and the Patriots have three, 2nd round draft picks, all of which are higher than No. 25.

Then there are the issues of what Marshall will seek in a new long term deal and whether Baltimore is even a place he’d like to play.

So, even if the Ravens are inclined to pursue a trade for Marshall, it takes more than just desire to make it happen.

Brian McFarland

Known on Ravens Message Boards as "B-more Ravor", Brian is a life-long Baltimorean and an avid fan of the Ravens and all Baltimore sports. A PSL holder since 1998, Brian has garnered a reputation as a cap-guru because of his strange (actually warped) desire to wade through the intricacies of the NFL's salary cap and actually make sense of it for those of us who view it as inviting as IRS Tax Code. Brian, who hails from Catonsville, MD and still resides there, is married and has two children.