Empire State of Mind: Brandon Marshall Signs with the Giants

Ken Kelly Posted On March 8, 2017

If you ever wondered what would happen in a three-way street fight between Odell Beckham, Jr., Brandon Marshall and a kicking net, you may soon find out! The Giants have gone all-in as Eli Manning reaches the tail end of his career by signing Marshall to a two year, $12 million deal. This signing will have long reaching dynasty impact. Let’s examine whose dynasty values have been affected as a result of this signing.

Brandon Marshall, WR NYG

The soon to be 33-year old Marshall will now suit up for his fifth team as he searches a Super Bowl ring by taking a pay cut to join the Giants. Marshall has never even reached the playoffs after a storied history of wearing out his welcome as he burned bridges in Denver, Miami and Chicago during his illustrious career. The Jets would have certainly taken him back but the inept quarterback play proved to be too much for Marshall to endure as he hits the twilight of a career featuring a whopping 941 catches, 12,061 receiving yards and 82 touchdowns.

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Marshall will instantly be the big bodied receiver the Giants have been lacking over the past few seasons. He will have to deal with being the second option to Odell Beckham, Jr., but Marshall should still produce solid numbers, worthy of consideration as a WR2. He already has eight 1,000 yard seasons under his belt and it would be no surprise to see him post his ninth in his first year with the Giants if he can manage to stay healthy. Historically, Marshall has been great in year one with a new team. In 2010 with Miami, he posted 86 catches for 1,014 yards and three scores. In 2012 with Chicago, he had a career season with 118 catches, 1,508 yards and 11 touchdowns. In 2015 with the New York Jets, Marshall had 109 receptions for 1,502 yards and posted a career high with no less than 14 touchdowns.

The days of building a dynasty team around Marshall are over. However, this is a good landing spot for him. If Marshall and Beckham can co-exist (a big if) the Giants offense should be explosive. Expecting WR1 numbers from Marshall wouldn’t be wise. However, there are few places where he could post WR2 numbers for dynasty contenders as the second option in an offense, but the Giants fit the bill. Marshall is currently the WR43 in our dynasty rankings and I expect that to rise a smidge with this news – just keep in mind he’s 33 years old. Regardless, he’s a nice addition to any contending dynasty team and a solid sell for those who aren’t. This may be the last window to maximize his value.

Odell Beckham, Jr., WR NYG

Some novice dynasty owners will read the news this morning and immediately become concerned about Beckham’s production – savvy ones won’t. The addition of Marshall should help keep defenses honest and free Beckham up even more, which is actually pretty scary. Beckham is still the primary option in this offense and he won’t move from the top spot on draft boards. Marshall’s presence is going to negatively impact one player’s production in this offense but it’s not going to be Beckham. In fact, I believe it could help.

Sterling Shepard, WR NYG

And now we get to Shepard. The signing of Marshall isn’t going to help his short-term production and will likely stunt his dynasty growth a bit. The good news is the Giants are notorious for “three wide” alignments and Shepard will be a big part of those. The bad news is he’s clearly going to be the third option on most plays. If I owned Shepard, I would simply taper my expectations in the short term. However, keep in mind Marshall is no sure bet to stay healthy. In addition, it’s possible he and Beckham don’t get along and this becomes a one year experiment with the Giants releasing Marshall at the end of the year. Shepard’s time is coming and it’s just going to be a longer wait than most dynasty owners were hoping for. He’s currently the WR26 and I’d expect that number to drop into the 30s here in the next few months as rankings are adjusted. If you have an owner believing this news is an indictment on Shepard and not a “win now” move for the Giants, I’d pounce and acquire Shepard on the cheap. Remember, dynasty owners are rarely patient and this could be a situation to exploit.

Eli Manning, QB NYG

Manning has averaged nearly 4,200 passing yards over the last eight seasons and he has to be salivating over the opportunity to see Beckham, Marshall and Shepard lining up together. One could make a solid argument the Giants now have the most talented receiving corps in the league. While this is going to be a short window of opportunity, Manning has a great chance to post a couple more solid seasons before hanging it up. By no means does this make him an elite QB1 option, but he’s going to be a solid option as a QB2 if he stays upright and his consistency returns. He should have every opportunity to perform better than he has recently.

Jets Receiving Corps

Before we start re-configuring the depth chart for the Jets, we really need to get through free agency and the NFL Draft. While it would be easy to vault Eric Decker and Quincy Enunwa up the dynasty rankings, the Jets certainly are in the market for pass catches over the next few months. I wouldn’t expect the depth chart for them to stay the same come May. Regardless, every receiver they have is going to struggle until they get that whole “we need a quarterback” thing figured out.
The dominoes are going to start falling quickly over the next few days. Keep it here for full analysis of all the player movement during free agency.

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Ken Kelly

Co-Founder at DynastyLeagueFootball

Ken is a corporate trainer by day an a tireless editor of dynasty content by night. His passion for the World Champion Seattle Seahawks is second only to his love of fantasy football and the dynasty format.

Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK