Hollywood Brown film review: Meet the Chiefs new wide receiver
Breaking down the film of Patrick Mahomes' new friend to see where he wins, where he loses, and how he fits in Kansas City's offense.
You’ve got to hand it to Brett Veach, he knows how to make it dramatic.
After several days of free agency, the Chiefs had been remarkably quiet. There were various rumors about wide receivers (for seemingly the millionth year in a row) and talk of L’Jarius Sneed trade options, but the lack of movement was borderline jarring. Those of us who are concerned about the Chiefs’ receivers after (gestures vaguely at the results of last year’s WR room not named Rashee Rice) were growing… angsty.
And then, as ever, Veach made a move, signing Marquise “Hollywood” Brown (previously with the Cardinals and Ravens) to a one-year deal “prove it” deal for around $7 million (with apparent incentives to $11 million) that was shockingly cheap given the current state of the receiver market. Brown isn’t a star, but he’s been more productive than multiple receivers who got larger deals than he did.
The former first-round pick is a smaller receiver at 5’9” and around 170 pounds, but is known for being a burner. That might be all most Chiefs fans know other than the Ravens eventually traded Brown for a first-round pick and he never reached the lofty expectations he had as a rookie (despite being a solid pro). Of course, some of that (maybe a lot of that) statistical output can be traced to rarely having consistently healthy quarterbacks and playing in run-heavy offenses every year.
So… what does the film say about Brown? Well, the only way to know that is to take a look at a good sample of games. So starting at 11:44 p.m., I dove into Brown’s 2023 film with the Cardinals (after going to the office to fetch my laptop, which I foolishly left there for the first time during free agency). The biggest things I was curious about were how well Brown can stretch the field and how he performs against man coverage at all levels. Those are two key traits the Chiefs need to help complement Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice in the passing game (and help combat the man coverage looks that had some success against the Chiefs last year).
To get an appropriate sample size, I watched the all-22 of 7 games from last season (NYG, DAL, SF, CIN, ATL, HOU, and LA), trying to grab a sampling of games where he was targeted frequently AND games where Kyler Murray was healthy.
Let’s talk Hollywood Brown’s skillset. What makes the most sense is to go through where he wins, where he loses, and then talk about his overall fit within the context of what the Chiefs need and what they did on offense last season.