What does a guy have to do?

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This article was published 02/06/2015 (3773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Robert Marve wants to play.

Ideally, Marve hopes that will be in Winnipeg. But if it’s not, Marve has served notice to the Bombers front office he is prepared to take his quarterbacking services elsewhere at the end of the 2015 season.

In an off-season during which the Bombers gave their first-string quarterback, Drew Willy, a raise and an extension and their second-string quarterback, Brian Brohm, a new contract, Marve rebuffed similar offers from the Bombers of an extension and served notice he intends to play out his option in 2015 and become a free agent at the end of this season.

So what gives? Marve says he just wants to play and if it’s not going to be in Winnipeg — where head coach Mike O’Shea repeated Monday that Marve remains, at least for the moment, the club’s third stringer — then Marve would like to keep open his options of playing somewhere else.

“I just want to see what can happen,” Marve said Monday following the conclusion of Day 2 of Bombers training camp. “And I hope I can stay here in Bombers nation. I really like Winnipeg and I really like coach (offensive co-ordinator Marcel) Bellefeuille and everything we do on the offence. So I really hope everything works out…

“But more than anything else, I want an opportunity. I think that’s what everyone’s goals are. Whatever you’re doing, you want to do it to the best of your capabilities, wherever the best opportunity is.

“But right now, I’m focused on helping this team in whatever way I can.”

Marve didn’t play much last season but was electrifying the few times he did. His passing stats were nothing special — 11-for-22 for 140 yards and one touchdown toss — but his ability to scramble out of trouble and make something out of nothing left a big impression that had many Bombers fans wondering by season’s end why the former Florida high school phenom wasn’t Winnipeg’s No. 2 man behind Willy instead of the much more pedestrian Brohm.

If Marve was wondering the same thing by season’s end — and his reluctance to sign an off-season extension would seem to suggest the thought at least crossed his mind — he wasn’t letting on Monday. Asked if he felt he’d done enough in 2014 to earn a shot at the No. 2 job, Marve deferred.

“That’s not my decision. The only thing I can control is to play the best that I can play,” said Marve.

He will have to play better, though, if he’s going to move up O’Shea’s depth chart. Asked Monday whether he was prepared to name his No. 2 quarterback on Day 2 of training camp, O’Shea didn’t skip a beat.

“Right now Brian Brohm is our No. 2,” said O’Shea. “But there’s always competition. The other guys should always be competing to move up.”

So what does Marve need to do?

“Obviously, when he gets in ball games, he makes things happen,” said O’Shea. “He certainly can move and can run and makes throws when he’s moving around. He brings an air of excitement to him. Fans love that. Players too. So he’s certainly got an amount of charisma to him that is very attractive…

“What does he need to do? Keep working, keep learning his stuff, run the offence, make the right reads… It’s just a matter of keep running through the whole process on a daily basis.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek