I don't get this sentiment. Can everyone stop acting like the WC offense doesn't need good receivers? I'd love to see how successful Joe Montana would have been throwing to Brian Hartline & Davone Bess rather than John Taylor and Jerry Rice. You can't solve all you're problems in one year, but let's not all act like we're okay with having Brian Hartline be Ryan Tannehill's #1 receiver for the next 10 years; we'll be looking to upgrade the position next year.
What most are saying is that you don't need a true #1 WR, like Marshall to be successful in the WCO. Will Hartline, Bess, Gates and company be enough, doubtful unless Gates turns into what many think he can be. If you put Donald Driver, Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson in Sparano's or Gailey's or Turner's vertical offense, they'd have a tough time figuring who the #1 is because none of those guys qualify. Are they not good receivers ? Of course they are... Chris Chambers was a good receiver for us, but not as a #1 guy. John Taylor and Jerry Rice would not have fit in as a #1 WR in most offenses of their time...Would JR be the best WR of all times right now without Walsh's WCO, doubtful. That's the point, that we can be successful without a Brandon Marshall, not that our WR corps is adequate at this point...
Secondly, despite his production he was a malcontent and trouble maker for this team. Even now, he continues to bad-mouth this team, which makes no sense to most of us. All they did was put up with him thru his 'discovery' time, when he figured out what was causing a lot of his problems, give him a stage to discuss his mental issues publicly and put up with him while all this was going on. And his way of handling things was to not keep his concentration and drop more than his share of passes, more than his share of what would have been TD passes (9 in two years by most accounts) and aside from having issues off the field, he create issues on the field, on the practice field, in the locker room and publicly bash his coaches and teammates.
Thirdly, his production as a WR was superficial. He had some good stats, like 81 recpts, 1214 yrds playing with the very QBs he continually bashed publicly. But he also took plays off when he wasn't involved, disappeared in the red zone, dropped way too many passes and his TD production for a #1 WR was not anywhere near the level of most elite WRs...
Couple these things together and Ireland had no choice but to dump him, and getting a couple of 3rds is fine by most for the problems he created and lack of real production.
Back to the point, yes...this WR corps, as we see it now, is lacking. But Marshall would really have made it that much better...