Chiefs Sign Hollywood Brown
Tyler Brown
The Kansas City Chiefs had one receiver rostered that tallied more than 450 yards in 2023. 2024 should be a different story and life should be easier for quarterback Patrick Mahomes as it has been reported that the Chiefs signed Marquise “Hollywood” Brown.
Brown, a former first-round pick out of Oklahoma reportedly agreed to a one-year deal worth up to $11 million if all incentives are hit. Brown is a five-year veteran, who is still only 26 years old. He spent three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens before being traded, spending the last two with the Arizona Cardinals.
With the amount of years and dollars being reported on Brown’s contract, it is fair to wonder if he simply wanted a year to blossom with Mahomes in an Andy Reid offense. It might also be enticing to him to earn an opportunity to be a part of a team that could be the first ever to win three Super Bowls in a row.
Fellow free agent wide receivers Gabe Davis, Darnell Mooney, and Curtis Samuel all signed three-year contracts. Davis and Mooney each signed for $39 million and have not had as much success as Brown throughout their careers.
That is not to say Brown’s career has been perfect. He has been bitten by the injury bug, missing eight games over the last two years. When the Cardinals traded a first-round pick for Brown on the night of the 2022 NFL Draft, they thought they were pairing an up-and-coming star to team up with quarterback Kyler Murray and wide receiver Deandre Hopkins.
Murray wound up suffering a season-ending injury in 2022, Hopkins was released following the season and Brown ended up playing a total of 10 games with Murray over those two years. In those 10 games that he played with a competent quarterback in Murray, he tallied 665 yards.
It is those games with Murray and his days with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson that make people believe there is more in the tank. In his second year in the league, he led the Ravens in receiving and the following year he tallied over 1,000 yards. He is the only Baltimore receiver in the Jackson era to record a 1,000-yard season in their run-heavy scheme.
That alone should give Chiefs fans a high level of excitement thinking about switching Brown from those circumstances to catching balls from Mahomes. Brown is pegged as a deep threat but also can create separation in the short and intermediate areas of the field. He has also displayed the ability to beat man coverage, so he should be a major all-around upgrade to the Chiefs' recent deep threats of Marquez Valdez-Scantling and Mecole Hardman.
Still being 26, there is reason to think there is plenty of untapped potential here, and Brown may be acknowledging that, signing a one-year deal so that he can enter the market again in 2025. Brown feels like a dream match for a Reid offense with his skillset and he should complement wide receiver Rashee Rice and tight end Travis Kelce well, with their ability to beat zone and rack up yards after the catch.
This is just the second external free agent signing the Chiefs have made since the legal tampering period began nearly four days ago. The first was tight end Irv Smith Jr. and now the Chiefs add another pass catcher. It is unknown if the Chiefs are done or not at receiver, but at least now they will not go into the draft desperate. Brown and Rice are a more than capable wide receiver one and two combination. It is hard to find any holes in this low-risk signing.
