ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Brandon Marshall returned to practice on Sunday for the Denver Broncos.
Marshall had missed over a week of workouts with a leg injury. On Friday, a jury in Atlanta had found him not guilty of misdemeanor battery against his former girlfriend.
On the mend
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WR Brandon Marshall and S Brian Dawkins have been slowed by injuries in camp. When healthy, they give the Broncos a playmaker on each side of the ball. Here are their 2008 stats:
"For almost a year and a half now I've been swearing to my teammates and the community that I'm not that guy that they were portraying me to be," Marshall said about the trial and the case made against him. "Finally, to stand in front of a jury where they finally see both sides and for it to be a fair stage, the truth finally came out."
"There are going to be those who still believe otherwise, but the truth came out on Friday," Marshall said.
Safety Brian Dawkins also returned to practice with his right hand heavily wrapped over a cast and was wearing an orange protective jersey. Dawkins had been out since Aug. 3 with a broken right hand.
"I've done it before in my career," Dawkins said about having to wear a cast. "I had to play with it for a wrist back in the day, way back in the day, so I'm used to it."
As for Marshall, at times he looked like the player who caught 206 passes, 13 for touchdowns the past two seasons. He hauled in a short TD pass from rookie quarterback Tom Brandstater on his first catch of the day.
Later on he reached back behind him to deflect a pass forward with his left hand and snare it with his right on a pass thrown by Kyle Orton.
He also let passes bounce off his hands in the back of the end zone.
"I felt rusty today, kind of disappointed in my performance," Marshall said. "But it's the first day so I will get better."
Marshall said his lingering injury is not to his hip, but his hamstring.
Marshall also pushed aside questions about renewed attempts of a contract extension.
"I don't know what they're thinking," he said.
Running back Knowshon Moreno was not on the field. He came out early in the second quarter of Friday's game with San Francisco with a sprained left knee.
Moreno, the 12th overall pick, ended a holdout on Aug. 8 and had only worked out four days prior to the 49ers game.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
