More pics after the jump…

Photo from fOTOGLIF

– Brandon Marshall, via BroncoTalk (and 104.3 The Fan in Denver)

In terms of pure ability, where does Marshall rank amongst wideouts in the NFL? From a value standpoint, he’s only 25, so he’s just now entering his prime. That’s scary. Without all the off-the-field stuff, I’d probably only take Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald ahead of Marshall in a free-for-all draft. But with all the off-the-field drama, Reggie Wayne, Roddy White and Vincent Jackson look more appealing. They give you 98% of the production without all the headaches.

With Marshall and the Broncos once again looking to be on the outs, some lucky team has an opportunity to acquire the talented wideout this summer.

1/11 Update: If you’re looking for an updated bracket, click here.

In his TMQ rant against Brett Favre and Brad Childress, Gregg Easterbrook participates in a little revisionist history…

This should hardly come as a surprise, since Favre’s past two teams melted down late in the season. In 2007, the Green Bay Packers lost the NFC Championship Game at home, and Favre had so worn out his welcome in Green Bay — he had his own dressing area so he wouldn’t have to interact with other players — that coaches and management couldn’t wait to get rid of him. In 2008, the New York Jets were outstanding early, but lost four of their final five games and missed the playoffs. The coaches were all fired and Favre was given the boot. Basically, in a single season, he blew up an entire team. Now things have started well at Minnesota and are declining late. This is not a surprise, this is Brett Favre’s recent pattern. Don’t marry Zsa Zsa Gabor and think she really cares about you. Don’t hire Favre and think he cares about anything but Favre.

Hmm.

Let’s start with the ‘07 Packers — if a team loses the NFC Championship Game in overtime to the eventual Super Bowl champs, it’s considered a meltdown? Since when? He threw for 236 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in that game. That’s a meltdown? Easterbrook claims that Packer management “couldn’t wait to get rid of him,” yet Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy stated publicly at the end of the season that they wanted him back, and when Favre wanted to unretire the first time (in the spring of ‘07) they were all set to fly to Mississippi to talk it over before Favre called it off at the last second. Only then did they decide it was time to hand the keys to Aaron Rodgers.

Onto the ‘08 Jets — Easterbrook says that they were “outstanding early,” but “lost four of their final five games and missed the playoffs.” OK. But what about Favre’s injury to his throwing arm? Could that have contributed to the team’s poor play? Let’s not forget that after the Jets’ 34-13 drubbing of a then-undefeated Tennessee team (in Nashville) in Week 12, Favre was part of the MVP conversation. The guy injures his arm, he guts through it and the team flounders, and Easterbrook calls it a meltdown?

To me, if a player throws an interception in overtime the game before the Super Bowl, it’s a bad play, not a meltdown. And if the same player is later playing at an MVP level before injuring his arm, it’s bad luck, not a meltdown.

I don’t know what’s going on between Childress and Favre in Minnesota. Truth be told, as a Packer fan, I’m pretty much just going to close my eyes and hope that when I open them after the Super Bowl, Favre and the Vikings aren’t standing on the podium hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

We all know that Favre is a diva, but what do you expect from one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game? His ego didn’t cause the loss to the Giants in the NFC Championship Game nor was it the reason his arm broke down when he was playing for the Jets.

Don’t get me wrong — at this point, I am not a fan of the man after he retired his way to Minnesota just so that he’d have a chance to stick it to the Packers two or three times this season. But Easterbrook can’t change history and diminish the man’s skills or his impact on the teams he has played for. His play in ‘07 got the Packers to the NFC Championship Game. Sure, he threw the game-ending interception, but without Favre, the Packers wouldn’t have even been in the position to go to the Super Bowl. And the Jets — without Favre, they wouldn’t have been 8-3 and poised for a deep playoff run in 2008-09. The same goes for the Vikings — would they be division champs without Favre under center?

I know the Favre-haters out there have been waiting to pounce as soon as things started to go wrong in Minnesota. But this is ridiculous.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

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