The Oakland Raiders return to their home stadium with a thinning linebacking corps. The team wants to improve its defense ahead of their first game back home in more than a month. So they've signed Brandon Marshall back to the team to fix their patchy linebacker depth so far.
ESPN's Paul Gutierrez detailed that Marshall was one of the biggest cuts by the Raiders at the end of the preseason. The 30-year-old linebacker, who won Super Bowl 50 with the Denver Broncos, is happy that he's found a team to play for after going without a team for almost half of the season.
“Man, I'm excited, excited to get to work and show them why they brought me in in the first place,” Marshall told ESPN.
Marshall has played 74 NFL games ever since first suiting up for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2012. He's a decent pass-rusher, making 6.5 sacks in his career. He's made 423 tackles, one fumble recovery, and two interceptions in his seven-year career.
Raiders head coach Jon Gruden explained the logic of bringing Marshall back. They also revealed that their extremely thin linebacker depth forces them to look for another LB.
“We're struggling at linebacker right now with Marquel Lee [hurt] and Vontaze's suspension,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Monday. “We're going to probably be looking to shore up the linebacker position here in the next 48 hours.
“We're going to try to bring in another linebacker and train him. We have Dakota Allen, who didn't play yesterday, also on the team. We're thin. We have to add another linebacker, certainly. Hopefully Whitehead is ready to go. He came out of the game a little nicked up, too.”
Marshall will surely get some snaps in the coming games and will add some much-needed experience to the defense. This will also be his opportunity to audition for a job next season, if not with the Raiders then with some other team.
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