Late Saturday afternoon, it was announced that Kansas City Chiefs WR Marquise Brown will miss the entire 2024 regular season. There is hope that the receiver could be healthy for the playoffs as the Chiefs try to do the impossible, winning three straight Super Bowls. Brown suffered the injury on August 10th on the team’s first play of the preseason against the Jacksonville Jaguars. After trying to rest the shoulder did not heal properly and surgery was the only option. Let’s take a look at the immediate and long-term impact of Hollywood Brown’s injury for the Chiefs.
Immediate Impact
Hollywood Brown has been a productive player throughout his career with a total of 313 catches for 3644 yards and 28 touchdowns. Brown was brought in to help bring back the Chiefs explosive offense that was missing during the 2023 season. With Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, Travis Kelce, and Brown general manager Brett Veach retooled that room making it one of the more intriguing groups in football.
Without Brown, we saw the Chief’s offense shred the Raven’s defense for a majority of the night. The team’s biggest hiccups came with penalties and drops in the red zone that resulted in the team only scoring 27 points. Rookie WR Xavier Worthy stepped up and had 2 splash plays for touchdowns in his debut, establishing himself as an immediate impact player as a deep threat. Outside of Worthy, with Brown out, the Chiefs lack another deep threat to take the top off the defense. Expect WR Rashee Rice to feast over the middle of the field while Juju Smith-Schuster takes more snaps as the season goes on.
Long Term Impact
As mentioned in the previous section, the Chiefs are lacking another deep threat outside of Xavier Worthy. It will be interesting to see if the off-season plans of attacking teams with the deep ball change with the loss of Brown. Young practice squad players like Justyn Ross and Nikko Remigo could get their chances to prove themselves as a deep threat this season.
When free agency hits next year, it seems like Brown will almost certainly be back with the Chiefs. He took a 1 year prove-it deal this year and it seems like the Chiefs will get him at a discount again next offseason. If the Chiefs can retain him, then they will most likely run back the same WR core for the first time in a few seasons.
Chiefs Quest for a 3-Peat
This ultimately is not a huge deal in the Chief’s quest to become the first team in NFL history to 3-peat. The Chiefs offense looked improved in week 1 and will have another test this week with their rival the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Chiefs stay healthy and clinch another postseason berth a potential boost to the WR room in January is only going to help their chances.