Chiefs' Hollywood Brown Has IR Return Window Opened amid Shoulder Injury Rehab

The Kansas City Chiefs are close to getting another playmaker back for the final stretch of the regular season.

Marquise "Hollywood" Brown has had his practice window activated after missing the entire season to this point with a dislocated SC join suffered back in August.

On Thursday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Brown had a "positive" meeting with his surgeon ahead of practice window being opened.

The Chiefs also activated Harrison Butker's window to return from a knee injury that put him on injured reserve.

Injuries have been an issue for the Chiefs at receiver this season. Rashee Rice is out for the season with a knee injury, while JuJu Smith-Schuster has missed time. The emergence of rookie Xavier Worthy and the midseason trade for DeAndre Hopkins helped, giving Patrick Mahomes weapons on the outside to go along with tight end Travis Kelce, but getting back the field-stretching capabilities of Brown will be a bonus for the 12-1 Chiefs.

Brown, 27, had his best season back in 2021 for the Baltimore Ravens, catching 91 passes for 1,008 yards (both career highs) and six touchdowns. He was traded to the Arizona Cardinals ahead of the 2022 season and never quite reached his Baltimore success despite being reunited with college teammate Kyler Murray, catching 118 passes for 1,283 yards and seven scores across two seasons (26 games).

The hope coming into the 2024 season was that Brown would provide Mahomes with another downfield threat after the receiver position was Kansas City's biggest weakness during the 2023 campaign. That didn't keep the Chiefs from winning a Super Bowl on the back of an excellent defense and the elite playmaking of Mahomes, but it did make them far easier for defenses to slow down.

The Chiefs responded to those issues in a major way, drafting Worthy, signing both Brown and Smith-Schuster and eventually trading for Hopkins.

"That's probably what I'm excited about the most being here is to just put my best foot forward and show what I could do," Brown told reporters back in March. "I feel like I'll be able to showcase my skill set. I feel like I can affect all three levels of the game—short, intermediate and deep. I feel like [at] times in Baltimore and in Arizona, I showed facets of things that I could do, but not on a consistent basis. So I feel here guys are interchangeable. We can complement each other and that way the best can come out of everyone."

Soon, the Chiefs should finally get the chance to see that in action.