Brandon Marshall is auditioning for new Dolphins quarterback

Brandon Marshall’s not hiding the fact he’s lobbying for a new starting quarterback.


Brandon Marshall hopes to lure an elite quarterback.
The Miami Dolphins receiver, who earned the MVP honors catching four touchdown passes in Sunday’s Pro Bowl 59-41 AFC win, has had five quarterbacks (Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Moore and J.P. Losman) throwing him passes during his two year tenure in Miami.

In those two seasons he’s caught a total of nine touchdowns.

In one game, which features the elite quarterbacks of the NFL, Marshall caught four acrobatic, dynamic touchdown passes.

One Marshall caught on his back after kicking the ball to himself. Another was caught inside the end zone, where he had to tip toe the sidelines to bring the ball in.

“Down in Miami, getting a feel for different quarterbacks, had three or four of them throughout my two years there,” said Marshall, who caught 81 passes for 1,214 yards and six touchdowns last season.

“Quarterbacks make it easier for me,” Marshall told a NBC sideline reporter during the Pro Bowl. “These guys are putting it in the right places and I’m making plays. It’s easy right now.”

And Marshall hopes it’ll get easier in 2012 when/if the Dolphins sign Peyton Manning or Matt Flynn, or trade up to draft Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Marshall has reached out to Flynn, Aaron Rodger’s backup, who expects to become an unrestricted free agent. And he did that before Joe Philbin was hired as the Dolphins’ new coach.

He also plans to reach out to Manning once he’s released by the Colts to make a sales pitch. NFL rules allow players to contact one another without it being viewed as tampering.

Marshall loves what Moore brought to the team when he replaced Henne as the starter. Without Moore trusting him Marshall probably won’t have been playing in the Pro Bowl.

But Moore’s struggles with accuracy made locating the ball an issue at times last season. With more accurate passes Marshall believes his play will resemble what fans saw in the Pro Bowl on Sunday.

“Elite quarterbacks put [the ball] in the right spots,” Marshall said.

Marshall believes better quarterback play is the missing piece for a Dolphins team that has a solid foundation.

“It’s strong. If you look at what coach [Tony] Sparano was able to do, the foundation he’s built. A lot of people don’t give him enough credit,” Marshall said about the Dolphins team. “We have a solid locker room of high character guys. Leadership is there. The new coach coming in is inheriting a strong team.”