March 24--PHOENIX -- First-year New York Jets coach Todd Bowles is confident Brandon Marshall will be an upstanding, positive addition to his program. Their pre-existing relationship from Miami helped fuel the Jets' push to acquire the mercurial receiver in a trade with the Chicago Bears, and Bowles on Tuesday at the NFL owners' meetings praised Marshall's personal growth and professional ability.
"The guy is so much more than, I think, whatever everybody is trying to paint him (as)," he said. "Everybody, if you look up their past, is going to have some shaky things going through it, but Brandon has come a long way. The things he does with what he's doing right now and the way he's come ... to where he is now, I think he's at a great spot in his career to have a breakout year."
On March, 6, new Bears general manager Ryan Pace traded Marshall and a seventh-round pick in this year's draft to the Jets in exchange for a 2015 fifth-rounder. That's a scant return for a five-time Pro Bowl reciever who had 2,803 yards, 23 touchdowns and 218 receptions in his first two seasons with the club. The Bears' new regime, however, opted to unload Marshall and some of the off-field concerns they perceived.
In Bowles they found a taker. He was the Miami Dolphins' assistant head coach and secondary coach when Marshall played two seasons for the team from 2010-11. That span included Marshall's diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Bowles finished the 2011 campaign as the Dolphins' interim head coach, a period during which he and Marshall became closer.
"I think as a coach, when you have a player, especially if you have somebody that gets in any kind of trouble, you want to see the growth of the person over the years, whether you're on their team or not," he said. "You want to see those guys mature and succeed. You've seen Brandon mature over those years and become the man he is, and I think all that stuff has helped him to become who he is today."
Marshall's off-field ventures, including his Project 375 foundation for mental health awareness, don't seem to bother Bowles. He's willing to let Marshall continue serving as a panelist on Showtime's "Inside the NFL," a commitment that required Marshall last season to fly from Chicago to New York and back on the Tuesday off-day.
"If it doesn't interfere with his practice time, and we'll talk about it," Bowles said. "His days off are his days off. He can do whatever he wants to do. I think Brandon is smart enough to know (how) to handle his professionalism. There are a lot of guys that do business ventures on their days off and off the field. We'll have a talk about that, but I have no problem with that."
