BSJ Oral History: How Cassius Marsh and his 'controlled insanity' reached the NFL

He is, without a doubt, the most interesting new face in the Patriots’ locker room.

Cassius Marsh was acquired in a deal with the Seahawks just before the start of the 2017 season, and he’s quickly become one of the more distinguishable players of the Bill Belichick Era. Whether it’s the tattoos, his love of “Magic: The Gathering,” the fact he has some of the smallest shoulder pads for any front seven defensive player in the league, or his exceptionally high motor, the 25-year-old Marsh — named in honor of Cassius Clay, the boxer who became Muhammad Ali — has made his mark on the 2017 Patriots.

What follows is an oral history of Marsh’s journey from California to Foxborough; from the “controlled insanity” that came with getting kicked out of multiple college games to becoming a young man whose college position coach said he ultimately matured more than any player he’s seen over the course of his coaching career.

If you want to really get to know Marsh, you have to look beyond the ink, all the way back to his high school days in California. The son of a former NFL wide receiver, he took to the game at an early age for a few reasons, including the fact that he was a lot bigger than most kids his age. His defensive line coach at Oaks Christian School in Westland Village, Calif., was Mark Shihabi, who recalls Marsh as a big kid who was already an immense talent, even as a freshman whose teammates included Joe Montana’s son Nick, actor Will Smith’s son Trey and Wayne Gretzky’s son Trevor.

Shihabi: “He was just so much better than anyone around him. Even at an early age, we tried to simulate what he was going to face at the next level. But his talent was just so far superior to everyone else, Cassius, who was about 6-foot-3 and 285 pounds, would go out to practice and just wreak havoc. We had to pull him off the field so the offense could run some plays. And he would get frustrated — he just wanted to play.”



“When he got on the field, he had a great work ethic, but he wasn’t a weight room rat at the start. He worked hard on the field. But when his senior year hit, he said, ‘OK, it’s time.’ And he really took it to the next level. That’s when it clicked for him. He started working out and his attitude started changing. He just turned it all around and became really good at such a young age.”

He channeled some of those competitive juices into playing the card game "Magic: The Gathering." A self-described "nerd" when it came to the game, he picked it up at age 11 and has been all in ever since. On the field, he earned first-team All-State underclass honors as a junior in 2008 and was an all-CIF pick after finishing with 55 tackles, 16 sacks and two forced fumbles. He recorded 83 tackles and 23 sacks as a senior. Small wonder he was in serious demand as a recruit. Marsh’s high school tape made the rounds, and he had several big schools interested. UCLA recruiting coordinator Angus McLure was keeping an eye on him, but didn’t think the Bruins had a shot.

Shihabi: “I know his Dad wasn’t around for most of his high school years until he started getting offers. His Mom was always in the picture. He’s a mama’s boy. Cassius and his Mom were always together — he loves her to death.”

McLure: “When we recruited Cassius, he was a local guy from Oaks Christian, and he was leaning heavy toward LSU. He had family from down there, the whole nine yards. We wanted to slow-play his recruitment — don’t put heavy pressure on him, just let him know he has a spot here if he wants one. We stayed persistent, and were always in contact, inviting him to games and just continuing to talk to him. In the end, that paid off when he flipped to UCLA at the last minute. That was awesome.”



UCLA wasn’t completely aware of what it was getting. Marsh was a tightly-wound kid who was, by his own admission, still on the heavy side. McLure, who was also the offensive line coach, switched positions and became Marsh’s defensive line coach prior to his sophomore year. That’s when it started to happen for Marsh, but it wasn’t without some “knock-down, drag-outs” as McLure called some of the conversations he had with the 6-foot-3 Marsh, who topped out at almost 300 pounds.

McLure: “I was always amazed at his talent level, even as a freshman. But he was fat Cassius back then. Despite the fact that he was so big, I was always amazed when it came to his quick-twitch skills. He was so quick off the ball for a big kid. But he was so out of shape. But I was moved over to the defensive line the next year, and I had the honor of coaching Cassius. He was raw from the standpoint of technique, but he really started working on getting his body right when it came to diet and how to eat.

“We also moved to a 3-4, which put him in some different lineups and alignments he hadn’t played before. At first, he was extremely upset with the scheme change. It caught him off guard. I mean, I was a first-year defensive line coach — he was probably looking at me like ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ But I told him ‘Look, I’ve coached in multiple schemes before. I’ve coached a pistol offense. I’ve coached in a West Coast offense. I can tell you everything that the offense is going to do.’ That’s when I could tell that he really bought into what I was telling him. I mean, during that transition, we certainly had some knock-down, drag-outs, but he was ultimately very patient and understanding.”

Marsh was tough to corral sometimes. He possessed something McLure called “controlled insanity” — he was suspended two games in 2011 for participating in a fight against Arizona. In 2013, he was benched for a game after being ejected for punching an opponent. The mad-dog approach was what got him that far, but he needed to find a way to harness that playing style.

McLure: “I always called the way he played ‘controlled insanity.’ I was the one who had to try and control him for a few years there. I mean, he would get into it with anybody. He was tossed out of a couple of games. He had to be able to find a way to harness that intensity and passion and killer instinct and just be a little more levelheaded.”



Freshman year at UCLA was also when the tattoos started to appear, and the ink started to define him as a person and a player.

Shihabi: “He was always kind of independent, but when he came back from college, that’s when the ink started showing up. He had a sleeve on his arm. He wasn’t decorated as he is now, but that’s when it began.”

McLure: “Freshman year, the tattoos first started appearing, and they grew and grew. I know they all mean a lot to him. They’re all well thought out, and with each one, there’s a story to tell.”

For Marsh, things started to change as he moved through his junior and senior seasons. That controlled insanity was replaced with a laser-like focus that allowed him to grow and mature and evolve. He dropped the weight, and kept that quick-twitch speed. As a result, his numbers improved over the course of his college career. He landed on many national radar screens his senior year when he popped in a nationally-televised game against USC.

McLure: “He gained national attention as a senior when he had back-to-back sacks at two different positions in a game against USC. His first sack, he was on the right side, and did a club swim move and got past his guy and got the quarterback. The second one, he was on the left side as an edge rusher and he just came roaring off the edge and had another one. That’s when he first started to get that national attention.”

In all, he played in 50 games with 38 starts at UCLA, finishing his college career with 155 career tackles and 16 sacks, as well as two forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries. He also blocked a pair of kicks and caught two touchdown passes in a tight end set.



 

But it was the newfound maturity that caught the eye of many who had known him for the last several years.

Shihabi: “When he came back for a visit after he went to college, he came up to me and said ‘I just want you to know I know I wasn’t the easiest kid.’”

McLure: “Ultimately, he matured more than any player I’ve ever coached over the course of a four-year span. He walked out of UCLA a man.”

In the 2014 draft, he drew the attention of several teams — including the Patriots — but was selected by the Seahawks in the fourth round; true to his iconoclastic style, when he was picked, he wasn’t watching the draft, but the movie “The Last Samurai.” He made an impression on his coach Pete Carroll a few months into his NFL career, as he started wedging his way into the Seattle lineup.

Carroll, June 2014: “He’s got great quickness. And he’s a real savvy pass-rusher for a brand new guy. He looks like we hoped he would look. We moved him around quite a bit. He understands the game and is able to demonstrate the flexibility to play a lot of spots like Mike Bennett plays. He’s made a really good impression.”

He also came under the guidance of veteran Michael Bennett, who helped guide him through his first few years in the league as a backup end and special teamer. He quickly gained a role on special teams, but was stuck on Seattle's depth chart for the first season or two behind veterans. But Marsh started 2016 with a bang -- in the opener against the Dolphins, he made a big hit on a punt return, blocked a kick and had a sack, the first of a career-high three sacks he had on the year.



It was performances like the one against the Dolphins that prompted Bennett to say in the summer of 2017 that Marsh was on the verge of becoming a breakout defender.

Bennett, Aug. 2017: “This is a guy who has worked with me all this summer and to see his progression as a player, his conditioning, his work ethic and his mindset for the game this year. I think Cassius is going to be a guy who is very exciting and it is going to be a really great year.”

Dealt to New England prior to the start of the 2017 season, Marsh has settled in to become part of the Patriots’ front seven, working as an edge presence in the same mold as Rob Ninkovich. (Call it fate, but he was given Ninkovich’s old space in New England’s locker room.) Through eight games, he has a sack, a forced fumble, a blocked kick and 14 tackles, all while working as part of a rotation along New England’s defensive front seven, as well as a sizable role on special teams. For the Patriots, it was the chance to get a guy they had been looking at closely in the days before the 2014 draft.

Defensive line coach Brendan Daly: "He’s a guy we evaluated in the draft process and had a very high opinion of. A lot of times when that happens, you don’t get an opportunity to work with that guy, and fortunately we’ve been able to. ... He works really hard. He’s a smart player who understands schemes and learns schemes fairly quickly. Plays extremely hard. High effort, high motor guy. Has made a number of plays for us in pursuit. ... He’s been good."

Bill Belichick: “He plays on a spot that has a lot of – there are a lot of variables at that spot. It’s similar to what Rob did for us. He has some coverage responsibilities, different responsibilities in the running game, multiple responsibilities in the passing game, pass rush, man coverage, zone coverage. It’s part linebacker, part defensive end. There’s quite a bit to that position, but he’s done a good job of getting better at it every week, being a little more comfortable. A lot of that involves other players, too; safeties, inside linebackers, the guys that are adjacent to him, how he fits with them, what those responsibilities are. He’s done a good job of picking that up. He works hard. He’s a smart kid. He plays hard. He’s got a good motor.”

Daly: “The majority of (Marsh’s) snaps have come on the left side, on the edge, where Rob (Ninkovich) played the majority of snaps for us. And there are some similarities there, skill set wise. I do think it’s a little different — Rob was kind of a defensive end in college who moved and played off the ball and the more back towards the line of scrimmage. Cassius was a defensive tackle his sophomore year in college and weighed 285 points, so there are some differences in how they’ve come to where they are, if you will. There are some comparisons there.”

“He’s a unique guy. I enjoy him. He’s a passionate guy. The game is important to him. He’s an emotional guy. He’s got a high level of competitiveness to him, which is fantastic.”

As he has grown, Marsh has also become a mentor for younger players who may have walked a similar path.

Shahabi: “There are guys who come in here to great ready for the draft, and he’ll come over and start talking with them, and they’ll start talking about footwork, and Cassius will spend time with them and have to get caught up on his own workout. If you would have asked him five or six years ago to help coach someone like, he would have told you to (expletive) off. He would have said, ‘No, I’m trying to get my work done.’ The other month, he was in here with a kid from Cal, and he broke it all down for him. We were there for three hours until the kid got it. Cassius didn’t get a lick of work in for himself. I told him, ‘I think you’d make a great coach some day. You have the temperament to do something like that now.’”

McLure: “I’ve used him to mentor our guys here. Takk McKinley was a guy who was a couple years behind him, but another guy who played with that controlled insanity we talked about before. He had the same heart and passion and competitive juices, and like Cassius, was similar in that he would always go up to that edfe, and occasionally go over it. One day, he came to my office, and said, ‘You know, you remind me of Cassius Marsh.’ I got Cassius on the phone, and said, ‘I have your brother from another mother here.’ He said, ‘Put him on the phone.’ They had, like, a 10-minute conversation, and know they still have a relationship today because he helped get Takk on the right track.”

Shihabi: “It’s fun to see him doing his thing in the NFL. A great kid who really loves his family.”