The Fun's Over for Cassius Marsh in Jacksonville
Source - The Jaguars acquired linebacker Kamalei Correa in a trade with the Titans on Wednesday and that meant another player had to be dropped from the 53-man roster on Thursday.
Linebacker Cassius Marsh drew the short straw. The team announced his release on Thursday morning.
Marsh signed with the Jaguars as a free agent in April. He had nine tackles and a quarterback hit while appearing in four games for the team.
You hate to see it. Just flat out hate to see it. Here's Cassius Marsh, finally having fun in his career after leaving New England. Like he did when he said how much happier he was in 2017 getting to play on a 1-11 49ers team instead of the dull, joyless, Super Bowl team that ran like a prison chain gang, with him as Cool Hand Luke and Bill Belichick as Captain.
Of course, like Luke, he told off The Man. He didn't back down. Refused to bend the knee. He rebelled like the Natural Born Earth Shaker that he is.
Told the warden off right to his super serious, all-business face.
In New England, Marsh, a classic speed rusher, said he was miscast as a “coverage” linebacker. And he became so disenchanted with his role and the Patriots’ culture that he “wanted to get waived” when he requested a meeting with head coach Bill Belichick that precipitated his exit.
“They asked me to do a bunch of stuff that I had never done: covering running backs and receivers and basically almost never rushing the passer, which is what I did in playing defensive line,” Marsh said. “They don’t have fun there. There’s nothing fun about it. There’s nothing happy about it. I didn’t enjoy any of my time there, you know what I’m saying? It made me for the first time in my life think about not playing football because I hated it that much. …
“I confronted (Belichick) about all the things that were going on,” Marsh said. “I won’t get into detail, but it was B.S. things they were doing. I just wasn’t a fan. And so I, basically, without asking to get cut, I kind of asked to get cut. … I had confidence that I would have an opportunity elsewhere and I would take advantage of it.”
And he did take advantage of it. All the way to 1-4 Jacksonville. To help anchor the defense that's given up the eighth most points, the third most yards and the most yards per play in the league. Led by this "classic speed rusher," who got his team all the way up to the 24th most QB hurries in the league, thanks to his signature fun.
To repeat, you hate to see it. Hopefully he'll land somewhere else soon. I just know where he won't be signing.