Chiefs WR Hollywood Brown’s Injury Recovery Takes Unexpected Turn: Report

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Hollywood Brown, who has been working his way back from a sternoclavicular joint dislocation that he suffered in KC’s preseason opener, is going to be placed on injured reserve, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz on September 13.

“Sources: The #Chiefs are placing WR Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown on IR, and he will undergo surgery to repair his dislocated SC joint,” Schultz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “After multiple imaging studies, it was determined that, although Hollywood felt better, his injury was not healing correctly. Without corrective surgery, he would risk a more serious long-term injury. The surgery is scheduled for Monday with Dr. Peter Millett in Vail, CO, and the Chiefs will monitor his rehab progress throughout the season.”

This comes as a surprise given Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s optimism regarding Brown’s injury recovery when he was asked about it during his press conference on Monday.

“He’s getting close. I know he’s feeling better,” Reid said of Brown on September 9. “We’ve just got to kind of see where it goes from here. They’ve been doing these periodic tests on him and making sure that he’s headed in the right direction — scans and all that. It looks like it’s heading in the right direction. Now, we just have to see where it goes from there.”

X Users React to Hollywood Brown Update

X users reacted to Schultz’s update on Brown.

“Major bummer but hopefully still has a chance to return later in the season,” one person wrote. “The #Chiefs offense will still be good and he could provide a huge midseason boost if he can get healthy.”

“That really sucks. Makes the [Xavier] Worthy draft selection more important now,” another person wrote. “Gonna need guys like JuJu [Smith-Schuster], [Justin] Watson and [Mecole] Hardman to really step up.”

“As much as this sucks, it gives Xavier time to develop. And it’s not like our offense is suffering by any means. Get him healthy and have him for later in the season when it’s more important,” another person wrote.

“Well this is incredibly unfortunate,” another person wrote. “Was not expecting this at all. Prayers up for a speedy recovery, Hollywood. This hurts even more bc we all know how excited he is to play with Patrick Mahomes. Hopefully he’ll be back mid season…”

Xavier Worthy Has Stepped Up During Hollywood Brown’s Absence

One player that benefitted from Brown’s absence in Week 1 was Chiefs rookie first-round pick WR Xavier Worthy. He played 34 of a possible 54 offensive snaps against the Baltimore Ravens — which was the second-most among Chiefs receivers — and finished the game with 3 targets, 2 catches, and 1 touchdown as well as 1 rush for 21 yards and another TD.

“He’s so cool, calm, and collected like all the time. You never even see the excitement on him, but he goes up there and makes plays,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of Worthy after the 27-20 win over the Ravens. “Obviously, we want to continue to use him more and more. I thought he had a great day today making big plays in big moments. It was good to get the whole offense going and kind of see where everybody’s at.”

With Brown sidelined for at least another month now, Worthy will continue to play a large snap share, which will hopefully result in plenty of explosive plays for Kansas City.