Denver Broncos Throwing Up Brandon Marshall To Bengals Smokescreen, Desperation?

This is good news for the Seattle Seahawks.

The Denver Broncos have come out and said that the Cincinnati Bengals are interested in obtaining the dynamic wide receiver.

This very well may be true, they recently cut Laverneaus Coles and behind Chad Ochocinco they don't have a ton of depth.

At the same time though, nothing has been confirmed by the Bengals brass, they don't have the ties to Marshall that Seattle does either. There is nothing official that they would even be willing to trade the first rounder the Broncos want to acquire him.

This report all comes literally a day after the Broncos came out and said they expect another team to get into the bidding. 

Coincidence?

Bengals beat writer Joe Reedy also recently tweeted this in regards to the Bengals interest:

"Meant to drive up the price with Seattle."

That seems to be exactly what this is, and this is a very positive sign for the Seahawks front office as they continue to negotiate with the Broncos.

If these reports do indeed turn out to be a smokescreen, that means the Broncos just gave up a good deal of leverage in any deal. By getting caught pretending another team is involved in the bidding for Marshall, the Seahawks will actually hold the edge in negotiations.

They know the Broncos want him gone and if they are the only serious bidders they can simply dangle their second round pick, maybe a player, and say "take it or leave it."

This hardball stance the Broncos are playing trying to maximize their return in a potential trade is likely going to backfire unless another team or two legitimately gets involved in the bidding.

Until then, bank on the Seahawks offering nothing more then a second round pick and a combination of a player and late round picks for the talented receiver with the well documented murky lifestyle outside Sundays.