Brandon Marshall Achieves Impressive Career Mark: 300 Tackles

CARSON, Calif. (CBS4) - 300 career tackles. Not bad for a guy who was cut three times before he landed in Denver.

Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall reached the impressive mark in the first quarter on Sunday in Los Angeles as his team battled the Chargers. In what was part of a very impressive goal line stand, Marshall and Todd Davis combined for a tackle of Chargers running back Melvin Gordon on third down.

Marshall had 299 tackles leading up to the game.

Coming out of college, Marshall was anything but a sure-fire prospect. After spending five years at the University of Nevada he was the 142nd overall pick in the 2012 draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. After getting cut multiple times by them, Marshall's NFL dreams remained alive when he was signed to the Broncos practice squad in 2013. Soon afterwards he was promoted to the Broncos active roster.

"I could have got cut and then never got picked up, or could have went to another bad team or another team that wasn't winning, but I came to a stable organization that ended up liking how I played," Marshall said.

Marshall's road to the NFL was anything but easy. When he was 10 his mother took him and his brother to a shelter in hopes of keeping them away from their abusive father.

"We had a bad situation with him. When we tried to run from him -- breaking in the house -- we ended up having to stay in the shelter a while ... he eventually turned himself in," Marshall told CBS4.

Marshall credits those tough times and his love for football for helping him earn a scholarship to Nevada.