A New Chapter Begins in Kansas City: Chiefs Trade Hollywood Brown, Paving the Way for a New Era
The Kansas City Chiefs have brought back a couple of receivers from last year, Juju Smith-Schuster and Marquise Brown, who are looking to help the team return to the Super Bowl.
In the case of Brown, he had a good preseason before getting injured on his first play of the preseason against the Jacksonville Jaguars and wouldn’t return until Week 16.
Brown played twice in the regular season and three times in the playoffs for a grand total of just five games, so naturally, running it back with Hollywood made sense.
But in the draft, the Chiefs took receiver Jalen Royals, a move that Pro Football Network oddly suggests that the franchise might look to offload Brown if Royals takes off in training camp.
“There’s a scenario where Royals adds a vertical contested catch element that Brown can’t replicate, squeezing Hollywood out of the rotation yet again,” Pro Football Network writes. “He’s likely the No. 4 target right now anyway with Rice, Worthy, and Travis Kelce ahead of Brown in the pecking order. If Royals flashes with his camp and preseason reps, Brown could easily be on the move.”
Trading Brown makes zero sense for the Chiefs, per Over The Cap, it would cost the franchise $3 million in dead money if he were traded either before or after June 1.
Why would they want to lose money on a veteran for an unproven rookie?
Plus, the Chiefs haven’t seen what Brown and Mahomes can do after a full offseason of work, with the former first-round pick sitting out the majority of the year.
Now, he will look to be one of the key pieces for the Chiefs alongside Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy, with Travis Kelce reportedly taking a backseat in 2025.
Royals will likely be a gadget guy on offense and special teams for Kansas City in his rookie year, and with Brown a free agent in 2026, it will be then that the veteran might not return, allowing Royals to take his role in the offense.
But this season? We find it hard to believe the Chiefs would sign Brown only to trade him a couple of months later.
