Expect Shanahan to seriously pursue Marshall

Donovan McNabb listens during a press conference with Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan. (REUTERS/Molly Riley)

I’ve been splitting my time lately between monitoring everything Bronco-related and watching what Mike Shanahan is doing in Washington.

I think it’s interesting that both teams have made QB moves this off-season. I know it’s hard to compare Brady Quinn coming to Denver with the bombshell of Donovan McNabb‘s inner-divisional move to the Redskins, but I think it clearly points to the pervasive idea that you need a star signal-caller to make it to the Big Game these days.

McNabb’s move may not seem like it directly effects the folks of the Mile High City, but I for one certainly think it impacts Bronco fans in a big way. As a long-time follower of Shanahan, I can tell you one thing that will most certainly happen now that McNabb has been officially introduced to DC today…

Expect a serious push by Shanahan to acquire Brandon Marshall.

Here’s my reasoning…

We all know that Shanahan requires a QB that’s 100% devoted to the game (remember Jake Plummer’s fatal flaw was telling Shanny that football was just his ‘job’ not his ‘life’). He wasn’t happy with JC (not Jay Cutler, but Jason Campbell), and wanted to bring in his own guy.

McNabb is very serious about football. It’s his passion and I think both his experience and his attitude in the locker-room makes him a great choice for Mike’s new Washington Redskins.

To be honest, I think he’s been pursuing McNabb for some time – probably since the first day he landed in DC. And although several draftniks around the league keep mentioning the QB meetings taking place in DC, I think we can assume Shanahan has fully addressed his QB issue.

Having dealt with the QB, Shanahan also has a #4 overall pick coming up this month. I think Mike’s hoping to score a starting LT in Oklahoma State’s Russell Okung. This would be reminiscent of his selection of Ryan Clady in 2008.

So, mark QB and O-line as officially addressed and you quickly come up with two other areas Mike needs to upgrade in Washington:

Safety and WR.

I’m not sure how he’ll address his safety issue. He’s filled that position in Denver both with the draft and by finding veteran free agents, so I’ll side-step this one and jump to his WR position.

At WR he’s got Santana Moss and Devin Thomas. But he needs to add a playmaker for his newly acquired franchise QB. What better place to start than his old ‘project’ from Denver, Brandon Marshall?

Shanahan knows Brandon’s weaknesses as well as his strengths. Marshall would add a very big body to the the Redskins receiving corps (Moss is 5′-10″ and Thomas is 6′-2″). Mike has history with Marshall and I think Shanahan is uniquely positioned to both offer Denver more compensation for Marshall and Mike’s probably one of the few people that Marshall would respect (and trust) enough to accept a payday that’s reasonable (and not over-inflated).

Add to this Daniel Snyder’s deep pockets and that the fact that Team Shanahan/Allen appears to have near universal control over the team, and I think you have the makings for a very, very strong push from Shanahan for his favorite troubled WR.

The last point I’ll make is that Mike Shanahan has been pretty openly offering Albert Haynesworth up for trade bait. With the Broncos brand new 3-4 defense, would Josh consider a trade for Marshall that would send the big nose tackle to Denver?

The $40M questions, of course, will be what Josh McDaniels response will be to any offer from DC.

What do you think? Is there enough Shanny can offer his former team for the services of #15?