Hollywood, we hardly knew you.
Yes, we knew wide receiver Marquise (Hollywood) Brown well enough for the local chapter of the PFWA to award him the Steve Schoenfeld Good Guy Award for his cooperation with the media during the 2023 season.
However, on the field, things never worked out as expected after the Cardinals acquired him from the Ravens during the first round of the 2022 draft.
If truth be told, the Cardinals are where they are now in large part because of the six-game suspension levied on wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins shortly before the draft that year.
Coming off an 11-6 playoff season, the team was in a tough spot. Knowing they would be without Hopkins at the start of the season, rather than add center Tyler Linderbaum with their No. 1 pick, the decision was made to add Brown, who had requested a trade after a season in which he caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns and would be reunited with quarterback Kyler Murray, his teammate at Oklahoma.
You know what they say about best-laid plans. As the days were being counted down to Week 7, when Brown and Hopkins would be on the field together, Brown suffered a foot injury late in Week 6 against the Seahawks and missed the next five games.
The Cardinals defeated New Orleans in Hopkins’ season debut to move to 3-4, but won one game the remainder of the season. When Brown returned, he played essentially one game with Murray, who tore his ACL early in the next game against the Patriots.
Last season, with Hopkins off to Tennessee and Murray rehabbing his knee, Brown played five games with Murray, but in two, he played limited snaps grinding through another foot injury before missing the final three games.
In all, the expected dynamic duo played a total of 10 healthy games together.
In his two Cardinals seasons that totaled 26 games, Brown had 118 receptions for 1,283 yards and seven scores.
There was the thought that he might return on a one-year, incentive-laden contract, but the lure of the Chiefs was too enticing.
Brown told the Kansas City media Monday he informed his agent as free agency approached that he was interested in the Chiefs. The interest was mutual and Brown bet on himself (and quarterback Patrick Mahomes), signing a one-year, $7 million contract that includes $6.5 million guaranteed and $4 million of incentives. His salary cap charge is $8.206 million.
“When the Chiefs are interested in you, it’s like, alright, you’ve gotta take a look at that,” Brown said. “Of course, I can go get some money at other places. But at the end of the day, it’s about winning. It’s about what I want. And I feel like everything just worked out the way it should.
“It was other opportunities out there for sure. But I’m happy with the decision. I’m happy where I’m at. And at the end of the day, I’m a kid that comes from nothing. So the amount of money I’ve made so far in my life is a blessing to me. But I’m a football player, you know? I want to play football, I want to win, I want to be part of a winner. And that’s why I’m here.”
The Chiefs released speedy receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling on Feb. 28 after a season in which he had a mere 21 receptions for 315 yards (15.0 average) and one touchdown.
As Brown concluded, “I feel like I can affect all three levels of the game — short, intermediate, and deep. I feel like at times in Baltimore and in Arizona, I showed facets of things that I can do, but not on a consistent basis. So I feel like here, it’s guys around, interchangeable. We can complete each other. And that way, the best can come out of everyone.
“Being in this system, I feel like I’ll be able to showcase my skill set. I still feel like there’s a lot of my game that I really haven’t gotten to show people. And that’s probably what I’m excited about the most being here, is to just put my best foot forward and show what I can do.”
Hopefully, for him, that foot will be healed and hold up. If it does, too bad he won’t be doing it here, but the Cardinals move on in the reset that truly began 23 months ago.
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