Hollywood Brown should have extra motivation to return to Chiefs ASAP from injury

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid delivered an important update on Marquise "Hollywood" Brown on Monday, with the most important news being that Brown's sternoclavicular joint injury did not require surgery.

This type of injury is rare, and recovery times have a wide range depending on the grade and direction of the dislocation. Early updates are all positive thus far, and though Reid's post-game comment indicated that Brown's injury was a posterior dislocation, there is no further update or official confirmation on that.

The injury to the speedy Chiefs wideout will keep him out for the rest of the preseason. But then what?

A posterior dislocation is considered more serious than an anterior one, so that is one thing to pay attention to when receiving Brown updates.

In almost any circumstance, the perspective here should be to get the player on the field when he is healthy. Games in September do not matter in the same way that they do in December or January. In 2023, the Chiefs opened the season against the Lions without tight end Travis Kelce, and the loss that night did not prevent the Chiefs from going on to win the Super Bowl.

For Brown, however, there is a distinct incentive for getting back on the field in time for Week 1: the Chiefs' opponent. Brown was the 25th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens, who also happens to be the Chiefs' Week 1 opponent.

The 27-year-old, 5-9" 170-lb. wideout has faced the Ravens once in his career, coming up on the losing end last season as a member of the Arizona Cardinals. In that game, Brown caught 6 of 9 targets for 33 yards, although one of those went for a touchdown.

If Brown were able to suit up for the Sept. 5 game, which opens the entire NFL season, that would mean he recovered in a span of 26 days. While some reports of sternoclavicular injury recovery times indicate that they can be as short as 2-4 weeks, the outlook is concerning.

If Brown can't return in time to face his former team, he'll have another ten days before the Week 2 game against the Bengals. That might be a more practical goal for the team's greater Super Bowl hopes, but if you ask Brown, he'll probably tell you that the game he has circled on his calendar hasn't changed.