The Jets 2019 season finale ends in Buffalo, the same place where Brandon Marshall’s playoff hopes died four years ago.
Marshall, one of the better wide receivers of his generation, played with seven teams from 2006-18 and never appeared in the playoffs. Prior to the 2015 season, Marshall was traded to the Jets as a new regime sought its No. 1 wide receiver. He finished the season with 109 receptions on 174 targets for 1,502 yards and14 touchdowns.
Marshall’s best chance at postseason play came in his first season with Gang Green. The Jets stood at 10-5 after beating the New England Patriots in a walk-off overtime thriller the week before. All that was needed was a win over the Bills in Week 17 and New York would be in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
The Jets lost to Buffalo and missed the postseason. Marshall felt like he was robbed of a career first and he’s still angered about the events that transpired in the Jets’ Week 17 collapse in Buffalo. Never one to hold back, Marshall took shots at former teammates over the most important game of his career.
“Being brutally honest … you had guys like Darrelle Revis, who just was stealing from us and didn’t show up, didn’t get off the bus, and I was disappointed,” Marshall said on the latest episode of the New York Post’s “Gang’s All Here” podcast.
“But that’s Darrelle Revis, that’s Sheldon Richardson … the big guys that we were counting on, they didn’t show up … being brutally honest. That whole year on that defensive side, man … if those guys were who we thought they were, we probably would have went on to just crush the playoffs.”
The Jets had a simple task. Win and they clinched a Wild Card berth. Unfortunately for Marshall, the team crumbled under pressure. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three backbreaking interceptions as Rex Ryan got the last laugh in the Bills 22-17 Week 17 upset. Marshall caught eight passes for 126 yards and a score in the game, but it wasn’t enough.
Revis reunited with the team who drafted him when he signed a lucrative contract upwards of $16 million per year in March of 2015. He proved to be a shell of his former self and no longer posed as shutdown threat that he did when he first donned the green and white.
In that Week 17 game, Revis was tasked with covering Sammy Watkins, who wound up catching 11 passes for 136 yards in winning fashion. In the trenches, Richardson six total tackles and two TFLs.
Marshall and Richardson have a long-standing feud that boiled over in the Jets locker room following a 24-3 loss to the Chiefs during the 2016 season, in which Fitzpatrick threw six interceptions.
Since then, Marshall has decided to take the high-road in what he described as a “one-sided feud.” However, he could no longer bite his tongue regarding postseason play. Marshall’s 13-year career never went beyond the first week of January.
In his eyes, he has some former teammates to blame for that.