Yesterday, we saw veteran wide receiver Marquise Brown join his fourth NFL team as he heads into the eighth year of his professional career. In an appearance on the Speakeasy talk show with Emmanuel Acho and LeSean McCoy, Brown disclosed that, before he signed with the Eagles, he considered reuniting with the team that drafted him in Baltimore. 
Appearing on the show yesterday for a short interview, Brown was asked what other teams he considered signing with. He explained that, in his second experience in free agency, his agent was the person communicating with any interested teams and that he didn’t get involved until it came down to the few teams that really seemed to want him, based on how much interest they showed his agent. He did mention, though, that he “was really considering going back to Baltimore.”
Of all the wide receivers Baltimore has drafted in its 30-year tenure as the Ravens, only three have eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving in Baltimore. In 1999, they found a fourth-round gem in Brandon Stokely, who would go on to see that success with Peyton Manning in Indianapolis after failing to surpass 360 yards in Baltimore. The team would have to wait another 12 years before finding another 1,000-yard receiver in the draft. In 2011, they drafted Torrey Smith in the second round, and he became their first ever drafted receiver to record 1,000 yards with the team, doing so in his third season. Brown, arriving eight years later, was the fourth first-round wideout in the team’s history and the first to record a 1,000-yard season. Zay Flowers has since joined him in that honor as the Ravens have now seen two of six first-round receivers reach that milestone.
Like Smith, Brown reached that threshold in his third year with the Ravens, but unlike Smith, Brown didn’t get another year with the team after accomplishing the feat. Despite having recorded the Raven’s first 1,000-yard season since 2016, Brown was reportedly unhappy with his usage in Baltimore and asked to be traded. the Ravens paired him with a third-round pick and sent him to Arizona, getting the Cardinals’ first-round pick in return.
Since leaving Baltimore, Brown has failed to build on the success of his 2021 season. He seemed to be on pace to continue progressing in his first year with the Cardinals, amassing 485 yards in just six games, but he would miss the next five games due to injury and struggle to get that production back, ending the year with 709 yards. His second year in Arizona saw him record 574 receiving yards in 14 games. As a free agent, Brown signed with the Chiefs, but a preseason injury would hold him out until the last three weeks of the season. In 2025, he played in 16 games for the first time since he left Baltimore and recorded 587 yards and five touchdowns in a semi-resurgent season in Kansas City.
After four years of failing to reach the heights he reached in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson, one can hardly fault Brown for considering a return to Baltimore. Doing so hints that Brown may now be able to look past the issues he had with his usage in the past, which should benefit him as he heads to Philadelphia, where A.J. Brown has had some similar complaints in recent years. With Jahan Dotson departed in free agency and Brown, perhaps, on his way out the door, as well, Hollywood is set to headline a retooled group of receivers behind WR1 DeVonta Smith.
Didn’t he formally change his name to Hollywood.