Chicago Bears appear to have put Brandon Marshall on NFL trading block

A few years ago, the Chicago Bears appeared to be heading in the right direction with everything seemingly coming together on both sides of the football. The team brought in a veteran quarterback in Jay Cutler and were able to pull off a trade with the Miami Dolphins to reunite him with wide receiver Brandon Marshall.

Unfortunately, things haven’t panned out the way the Bears anticipated. Chicago fired head coach Lovie Smith after the 2012 NFL season and brought in Marc Trestman formerly of the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes. Trestman’s offensive-minded style was thought to be exactly what the team needed with weapons like Cutler, Marshall, Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffery.

Although it seemed to be the right fit, Chicago imploded during the 2014 NFL season resulting in Trestman being let go after only two years with the team. Now it appears that the Bears brass are clearing house with Marshall potentially being traded before next season, according to Brad Biggs of Chicago Tribune:

The Chicago Bears declined to commit to Brandon Marshall when asked about the veteran wide receiver last month, and now the team is exploring trade options five days before the start of the new league year.

With the Bears on the lookout for Trestman’s replacement, the Denver Broncos parted ways with head coach John Fox. It didn’t take long for Chicago to reach out to Fox and quickly acquire his services.

Now that Fox is in the fold in Chicago, the team appears to be ready to start over with Cutler and Marshall as likely candidates to be shipped elsewhere. Cutler has been surrounded by speculation ever since the end of last season with many anticipating his departure in one way or another, but Marshall being on the block is a bit surprising.

Although losing Cutler and Marshall would seem costly, the team might be able to find a formidable quarterback on the free agent market while having Jeffery simply become the top target in the passing game. It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out in Chicago, but it seems fairly obvious changes are on the way.