Chiefs To Re-Sign WR Marquise Brown

Two of the Chiefs’ wide receiver starters were set to hit free agency, but a Saturday agreement will chop that total to one. Marquise Brown is re-signing with the team, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler reports.

Brown agreed to a one-year deal that could be worth up to $11MM, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero add. This deal comes after Brown missed 15 regular-season games due to a shoulder injury. Although injury trouble has become a regular occurrence for Brown, the former Ravens and Cardinals wideout will attempt to bounce back in an offense he learned last year.

Free agency brought Brown to Kansas City last year, as the former first-round pick signed for just $7MM in base value. While incentives were part of the deal, Brown lost out on that route after suffering an SC joint injury that required surgery. Brown did make his return in Week 16, but he did not make much of an impact in the playoffs for a Chiefs team that saw its threepeat bid end with a blowout Super Bowl loss.

Brown, 28 this year, caught nine passes for 91 yards in his two regular-season games with the Chiefs. He added just five catches for 50 yards in the team’s three playoff games. The Chiefs will bet on the 5-foot-9 receiver showing better form next season, when the team will hope for better luck on the health front for the former Ravens and Cardinals starter.

Coming into the NFL with a first-round pedigree, the Oklahoma alum’s stock has trended downward since a 1,000-yard season in 2021. The Ravens managed to trade Brown for a package that included a first-rounder, but he missed eight total games with the Cardinals and did not clear 800 yards in a season. Brown was with Arizona during its period that brought Kyler Murray ACL rehab; the Cardinals lost Murray in December 2022 and did not have him back until November 2023. Brown also dealt with health trouble, suffering a foot fracture in 2022 and a heel injury that nagged him in 2023. Brown topped out at 709 yards during his two-year Arizona tenure.

The Chiefs have seen their post-Tyreek Hill receiver plans largely fail to pan out. The Chiefs have struggled at this position over the past two years, seeing injuries and underperformance reduce a former offensive juggernaut to a station-to-station offense that grew to rely more on a better defense and late-game escapes. Kadarius Toney did not pan out, and Rashee Rice suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Week 4 last season. DeAndre Hopkins largely did not impress after being a trade pickup. Although Rice and Xavier Worthy respectively came on down the stretches of the 2023 and ’24 seasons, both have been arrested over the past year. Worthy’s domestic violence arrest Friday places him on the suspension radar along with Rice.

These issues leave the Chiefs in need of having available receivers. Brown is far from a beacon of availability, but the Chiefs may need to lean on him more when Rice’s likely suspension commences and if Worthy ends up facing a ban as well.