The Chicago Bears are keeping Brandon Marshall around for the long haul.
The Pro Bowl wide receiver on Monday signed a three-year, $30 million extension during a live taping of ABC's "The View."
To our knowledge, it's the first time Jenny McCarthy and Whoopi Goldberg have teamed to break league news.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the deal -- which runs through 2017 -- includes $23 million in guarantees, per a source informed of the pact. The wideout will earn $15 million in Year 1, NFL Media's Albert Breer reported. Marshall tweeted that $1 million of his earnings will be donated to support mental health awareness, a cause the wideout has been devoted to in recent years.
Marshall's previous deal was set to expire after this season, but there was little doubt he'd be re-signed. The 30-year-old pass-catcher is coming off back-to-back 100-catch, 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown campaigns -- the only NFC receiver do so over the past two years. He has crossed the 1,000-yard barrier in seven of his eight seasons since Denver grabbed him in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft.
After four seasons with the Broncos and two with the Dolphins, Marshall has seen his greatest success reuniting with Jay Cutler in Chicago. He's an ideal foil for fellow Bears wideout Alshon Jeffery, with the duo operating as a pick-your-poison combination for opposing defenses. We'd argue that Jeffery was the more dangerous target down the stretch, but he's aided by the constant attention given to Marshall.
When we spoke with Marshall on the "Around The League Podcast" in January, he promised that 2014 would be his finest season yet, calling it his version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
"I really believe I had a down year," he said of last season, citing injuries. "I'm going hard and I'm really going to revamp my whole game and come back a totally different player, something you guys never seen before."
The latest "Around The League Podcast" plays the post-draft version of the game "What's More Likely" and breaks down all the latest news.
