WR Marquise Brown Will Miss Chiefs Opener, But Progress is ‘Incredible’, Says Coach Reid

Wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ key offseason acquisitions, will miss the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, according to head coach Andy Reid.

“Hollywood won’t be back this week and we’ll just see how it goes [from there],” Reid said. “But the kid’s amazing. I mean, his progress has been incredible, but I wouldn’t predict him being there this week.”

Brown suffered a dislocated shoulder on the Chiefs’ first offensive play of the preseason, and despite his rapid recovery, the team has decided to hold him out of the first game.

Earlier in the week, the Chiefs anticipated Brown’s absence by keeping seven wide receivers on their active roster. This group includes Xavier Worthy, the Chiefs’ 2024 first-round pick, Rashee Rice, their leading wide receiver from last season, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who recently rejoined the team after signing this week.

Reid mentioned that all six other receivers will play against the Ravens, and noted that quarterback Patrick Mahomes has had sufficient practice time with them, including Smith-Schuster.

Smith-Schuster, the Chiefs’ leading wide receiver in 2022, spent last season with the New England Patriots before the team released him during training camp.

“He looks great right now and he jumped right back in and had some good practices for us,” Reid said. “So it’s just a matter of him getting banged around a little bit. … He’ll get all that as the season goes, but it’s good to have him back in the mix there, for sure.”

Reid said that while Worthy has not yet played in a regular-season NFL game, he has performed well in practice.

“One that is unknown is Worthy having not played in an NFL game, a real NFL game other than a preseason game with him and practice,” Reid said. “But what I’ve seen is they have a pretty good thing going and we’ll just see how it goes when things are flying here fast and furious.

“He spent a lot of time with Pat and receivers, the veteran guys, just figuring out what Pat’s expecting or where he needs to be or what the coaches are asking him to do. He’s not afraid to ask and then he’s been willing to try everything. So whether it’s an inside route, one of those intermediate routes with long routes, he’s been very willing to get in there and mix it up. So I like what I’ve seen. Just like with any rookie that’s coming into this thing, you want to see how they do in the games, but you’d think [Worthy would] probably do [well].”