Giants wide receiver Brandon Marshall intends to play in 2018

After an injury-abbreviated first season with the New York Giants, wide receiver Brandon Marshall is not quite ready to call it a career.

Any real promise for the New York Giants this season is now gone at 0-5 and last week a significant line of wide receiver injuries further dampened things. Brandon Marshall was among those to go down and he had season-ending surgery on his left ankle last Tuesday.

Marshall will finish his 12th NFL season with just 18 catches for 154 yards and zero touchdowns in five games. At 33 years old (34 next March), he’s clearly close to the end of his career and a significant injury can quickly change someone’s outlook about the future.

Marshall even seemed to hint at retirement on Instagram the night before he was going in for ankle surgery, citing “mixed emotions” and that this was his “greatest year to date”.

But a few days going by has shifted Marshall’s outward sentiment.

"“I’m a competitor, and I don’t want to go out like that,” Marshall told ESPN this weekend. “I’m definitely not going out like that.”"

Marshall has shifted toward a role in media in recent years, notably appearing on Showtime’s Inside The NFL. That looks like his plan once he’s done playing, but getting healthy for a 13th NFL season seems to be the top priority with this quote to ESPN.

"“That’s my mindset right now,”"

Marshall is under contract with the Giants for 2018, at a pretty reasonable $5 million base salary. But he also hasn’t shown much over the last two seasons, and last week’s significant ankle injury may help rob him of whatever downfield speed he still has.

So the Giants could decide to move on as part of a youth movement at wide receiver and allocate Marshall’s salary toward other areas of need.

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If Marshall is fully healthy but available, he should have no trouble finding a new team for next season if he remains committed to playing. But a decline has come quickly, and he’s clearly not a 100-catch receiver anymore.