Cutler Relying Too Heavily on Marshall?

Football Outsiders has another good article up, this time on the AFC West as a whole. I found this nugget particularly interesting:

Last season, Cutler threw 496 passes. Of those, 169 were directed at Marshall. Only T.J. Houshmandzadeh was targeted more often. Carson Palmer threw one more pass to Housh than Cutler threw to Marshall, but Palmer threw almost 100 more passes overall. No quarterback relied so much on one receiver as Cutler did on Marshall.

Is Cutler relying on Marshall too much? It appears so, but the writer is quick to forget that Javon Walker was nowhere to be found, and Brandon Stokley was down with injury for the last several weeks, when Marshall really caught fire and was averaging 10 or so catches a game.

That being said, Marshall’s injury is a cause for concern if Cutler hasn’t established chemistry with other options. There’s also the lingering possibility that Marshall will face a league-imposed suspension for his off-field behavior.

This isn’t something I’m too worried about, more something to keep an eye on. It makes it obvious, however, that the Broncos are in need of another playmaker at the wide receiver position to take some of the focus off Marshall.