The year is 2013. A tall wide receiver from Georgia joins Baltimore for training camp. He enters a Ravens’ wide receiver group missing its former leader. The most reliable pass catcher of the team’s Super Bowl run the year before had been traded to San Francisco for a sixth-round pick. Another veteran, Jacoby Jones becomes the assumed next man up playing opposite of Torrey Smith, the clear first option on the depth chart. Jones has never held a role as an every-down starter, but the memory of the Mile High Miracle runs through the fans’ mind. They trust him.
As training camp goes on, that former Bulldog receiver catches the eye of the RSR crew and becomes a staple of our Camp Notes. In his first preseason game, he fails to haul in two tough, but catchable passes. Maybe it was just nerves, or maybe it was a sign of things to come.
Through the rest of the preseason, that Georgia receiver, Marlon Brown shows improvement. By the end, it becomes obvious that he will create a role for himself in the Ravens’ offense. In a unit without Anquan Boldin, a 6’5” jump ball threat could be just what the doctor ordered. The potential was there, if only he would get the opportunity.
Entering the season, Marlon Brown becomes a fan favorite. He works his way up the depth chart through the course of the season. He becomes the de facto starter opposite Torrey Smith after Jacoby Jones is injured in the first game, a blowout loss to the Denver Broncos. Tandon Doss disappoints thereafter, and Brown seizes the opportunity.
On a wintry Baltimore day in early December, with less than 10 seconds on the clock, Marlon Brown cements the lasting image of his legacy with the Ravens. After four scores, two for each team, in the last 2:06 of the game, the Ravens are down by 4. Flacco throws a pass to the back of the end zone. Marlon Brown reaches up, gets his feet down, and holds onto the ball. Touchdown. After the ensuing kickoff, the game is over. We knew he could do it. He proved it. He could carry this momentum through the rest of his career, we think. This is the day we realize Marlon Brown will become a reliable part of the Ravens’ offense.
A different play from that game, however, typifies Marlon Brown as a receiver. On a deep pass perfectly placed into Brown’s slightly outstretched arms, Brown couldn’t make the grab. He was bailed out by some poor ball awareness by the defender which resulted in a pass interference penalty. In that play, Brown showed that he lacked the tenacity necessary to excel as a big but slow receiving threat. He jostled with a defender timidly, but didn’t show the quick hands necessary to reach out and make the catch. It would have been a tough grab, sure, but you hope a player at Brown’s size would be able to outmuscle defenders.
Entering the 2014 season, Marlon Brown looks for a smaller, but more efficient role in the Ravens’ offense. The fan enthusiasm over Brown has reached its all-time high. We saw the production in a full-time role. We saw his natural potential because of his size. Coming off a rookie season in which he caught the ball 49 times for 524 yards and 7 touchdowns, he is ready to emerge. Veteran free agent addition, Steve Smith Sr. will be the starter, but certainly, Brown will have an outsize role in the Ravens’ offense.
About that…
The Ravens’ tallest target recorded 0 touchdowns in his second season. They rarely put him on the field in most red zone packages, opting instead for Steve Smith at 5’9” and their biggest speed threat, Torrey Smith. Kamar Aiken recorded more yards and an equal number of receptions in his first year on an NFL roster.
Surely, it was just a sophomore slump. He’ll get back to his 2013 form. He could even be better.
Once 2015 training camp starts, Brown’s 2013 season looks much more like an anomaly than the norm. We see more of the player who couldn’t reach out to make a tough catch than the one who won the game in the back of the snow-covered end zone. Kamar Aiken emerges as a much better alternative. Some fans, including many of us at RSR, hope that Jeremy Butler would take Brown’s roster spot. Brown makes the roster, but his role would become even smaller than it was in 2014, despite the loss of Torrey Smith and the injury struggles of rookie Breshad Perriman.
As the season progresses and the injuries pile up, the coaching staff makes their preference for other receivers on the roster clear. Players like Daniel Brown, Jeremy Butler, Chris Givens, and even Jeremy Ross see more playing time than Marlon. The honeymoon between the Ravens and Marlon Brown is officially over. His time in Baltimore is all but done.
A new crop of rookies and the return of Breshad Perriman would force Marlon Brown completely out of frame in 2016. If it didn’t happen this past Friday, it would have happened at some point in training camp.
The promise of Brown’s NFL career has become a skeleton of what it was on that one snowy day in 2013.
The image of Brown leaping up and pulling down a game-winner in the back of that pure white end zone has faded like the hash marks on the field that cold December afternoon.
