As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to kick off the NFL season against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, head coach Andy Reid provided the team’s typical mid-week injury update on Sunday with a clean report, with one exception. Wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown won’t practice on Sunday, as expected.
“Marquise is the only one not practicing today,” Reid said.
That report is great news regarding the other 52 members of the Chiefs’ newly-settled 53-man roster, meaning that defensive veterans like defensive tackle Chris Jones and safety Justin Reid will continue to practice after being sidelined throughout the preseason. However, Brown’s absence will be felt as the Chiefs begin the year against the team that drafted him in 2019.
After suffering a sternoclavicular joint injury on the first offensive play of the Chiefs’ preseason on August 10, it appeared unlikely that Brown would be ready for the season opener. While the team will have extra rest before facing off with the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2, it’s hard to project where Brown’s recovery timeline puts him at the moment.
As Jordan Foote of Kansas City Chiefs On SI wrote at the time of the injury, Brown’s best comparison appears to be Tyreek Hill’s injury of the same type in 2019. Hill missed the Chiefs’ next four regular-season games, suffering the injury on September 8 and returning on October 13. Hill played in an NFL game after a 35-day window from his injury to his in-game return. August 10 to September 15, when the Chiefs host the Bengals, is a 36-day span for Brown.
To be absolutely clear, there’s no way to confidently predict if Brown is ahead, behind, or on-track with Hill’s timeline. The uncommon nature of the injury means we have fewer examples of how long players take to return on average.
On one hand, Reid said on Friday that Brown is “amazing” and that “his progress has been incredible.” On the other, Reid essentially ruled out the team’s No. 1 wide receiver nearly a full week ahead of the game, as opposed to dragging on the injury status throughout the week, perhaps to attempt to make the Ravens consider how they’d handle Brown if he did make a surprisingly quick recovery. Unfortunately for the player and the team, Browns’ Chiefs debut will be delayed by at least one week. The good news is that, barring an injury in practice, KC should otherwise begin the year healthy as they kick off their three-peat campaign.