The Kansas City Chiefs will soon face a flood of decisions with the coming offseason—just on the other side of Super Bowl 59. While the players involved hope to be covered in confetti, the front office will be hard at work trying to sort out their options regarding roster construction and the threat of losing players in free agency like Marquise "Hollywood" Brown.
Brown is set to become a free agent at season's end, and he'll bring an interesting case to the open market. But even with the question marks that come with his obvious talent, the Chiefs are not only expected to want to bring him back for another run but they're rumored to have competition from one of their closest rivals in the AFC: the Buffalo Bills.
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported several nuggets about the coming NFL offseason in his latest column, and one of them concerned the future of Brown, a veteran wide receiver with a spotty injury history. He notes that the Chiefs "very much" want Brown to come back and he expects Patrick Mahomes to help with that recruiting effort.
Hollywood Brown's free agency is going to be an interesting case of market interest and injury concerns.
Fowler also notes, however, that the Chiefs won't be alone in their pursuit of Brown. "Will another star quarterback -- like Josh Allen -- be next? People with the Chiefs I spoke to this week believe that Allen has long wanted to play with Brown," he writes.
Despite only playing in two regular season games in 2024, Fowler also says he's expecting a fairly robust market for Brown's services given the speed factor he brings to the field. With an electric burst, great footwork, and impressive route-running, a healthy Brown offers a lot to any wide receiver room, so it makes sense why Josh Allen, Mahomes, and others would want him in house.
The Chiefs signed Brown to a one-year deal this offseason for this very reason—a reasonable deal worth only $6.5 million guaranteed—but were disappointed to lose him after making his very first catch in the team's first preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. A sternoclavicular injury required surgery and a lengthy recovery, which kept him from being activated until the very end of the regular season.
Officially, Brown had only 9 catches for 91 yards in 2 games this season, and he's added another 3 catches for 35 yards in the postseason. That said, his addition to the offense has relaxed the intensity of coverage on other targets and helped open up the offense for fellow pass catchers like Xavier Worthy and Travis Kelce.
Perhaps the Chiefs can entice him back after proving they're the right team to help him contend for Super Bowls. But it will be interesting to see the sort of money offered to a player who was missing all season and needed a one-year deal last year in the hopes of resetting his market.