‘Hollywood’ went to learn Chiefs playbook. Patrick Mahomes taught him something else

Marquise Brown arrived in Texas during the third week of March, just hours, not days, after landing in Kansas City to sign a one-year contract for a guaranteed $6.5 million.

In Kansas City, he found opportunity.

In Texas, he figured, he would find a head start on his first season with the Chiefs, with that provided by Camp Mahomes — you know, the Patrick Mahomes-led practices that resemble speed-dating.

Months later, as Brown stood in a heat index nearing 100 degrees after a two-hour training camp practice, he indeed pointed to that as one of the reasons he considered Camp Mahomes invaluable.

One of.

It’s not the only reason.

Because it wasn’t the only impression.

“The first time I got with Pat, I realized how much of a pro he was — and he’s coming off a Super Bowl,” Brown said in an interview with The Star. “I could see the greatness for myself, but I could (also) see why.”

Brown had arrived in Mahomes’ home state to learn the finer details of routes from his new quarterback: How does he prefer particular routes are run? What kind of tells does he want his receivers to spot in the defensive backfield?

But Brown learned something else entirely.

The work.

The specifics of the work.

There are some distinct advantages to having your best player be your hardest worker or smartest worker or better yet both, and those advantages are felt during the hot days mixed into a long training camp in St. Joseph.

It’s difficult to take a snap or two off when that guy never takes one off. That importance is felt now, this year, when the biggest obstacle the Chiefs will face is complacency after winning back-to-back Super Bowls.

But Brown offers an beneficiary example of a different variety, beyond anything on the field. All of one day into his visit to Texas, he informed Mahomes’ longtime trainer, Bobby Stroupe, that he wanted to adopt the quarterback’s training regimen.

He didn’t miss a workout this summer.

Not one.

“I saw greatness in Pat,” Brown said. “I see greatness for myself. So I had to create my own regimen and stay on top of things.”

There’s a reason the concept struck Brown — a reason he was fascinated by Mahomes’ workouts.

A couple, actually.

First, he’d “never worked out like that before,” he said, and when asked for clarification, he meant the particular types of workouts that Stroupe had designed — ones more focused than simply “getting bigger.”

Second? His personal history.

Let’s backtrack a handful of years. Brown’s medicals were a red flag to some teams ahead of the NFL Draft in 2019. He’d skipped the NFL Scouting Combine while recovering from foot surgery to repair a Lisfranc injury. The Ravens weren’t worried, though, and still plucked him at No. 25 overall.

But the foot injury lingered. Brown actually played with a screw in his foot his entire rookie season. When he felt it limited his speed and mobility, he had the screw removed the next offseason.

All good, right?

Well, except for the next two years, he said, his foot swelled during the week, so frequently that it held him out of most practices.

“My first three years were tough. I was always on the injury report, but I’d show up Sunday to play,” Brown said. “But I barely practiced. That was really taking a toll on me mentally.”

A trade offered a fresh start in Arizona.

In theory.

Instead, a fresh start resembled the sour ending in Baltimore. His first season with the Cardinals was cut short with a fractured foot. His next was marred by a nagging heel injury.

I haven’t even mentioned yet that Brown has been unable to complete a full NFL training camp without some sort of an injury. He mentioned it in our conversation, but with a key phrase: Knock on wood.

“Step by step,” he said.

It’s an exhausting list, to be frank, and it more than partially explains a relatively cheap price for a wide receiver who might be relatively short but isn’t short on the talent or speed. That’s one way to look at it, anyway.

That’s where the lesson came into play. He’d been searching for a way to change his career trajectory. He’d been looking to connect with his new quarterback — his first passing quarterback, mind you — before arriving for the preseason.

Both in one stop.

The result?

“I feel the best I’ve felt since being drafted,” Brown said.

Health-wise?

“Yes,” he said. “Definitely.”

That’s part of the point here.

There is some luck involved in injuries, to be sure. But Brown’s education this offseason taught him there’s more to it than a bad draw. He has paid better attention to his nutrition and diet, along with performing certain stretches before taking the field.

And then there is the new training standards. A lot of the workouts are focused on his lower body — notably his hamstrings and his feet. Brown said he already requested to join Stroupe and Mahomes for their in-season routine, even as the players take part in separate routines targeted to different types of players.

Done, they told him.

What does it mean for his 2024?

It’s a bit of a paradox, really.

If you’re pessimistic about his season because you’re pessimistic about his availability, well, you’d have a lot of history on your side.

That same history, though, can provide ammunition for optimism. Brown has made standout plays during training camp, and it’s not just the deep patterns. In fact, that’s the part that caught Mahomes by surprise in Texas — the route precision on the remainder of the tree.

The talent hasn’t left, in other words. It’s still in there, and, if he’s truly healthy for the first time, we’ve yet to fully see it.

Shouldn’t that be part of the reason for optimism?

“Yes,” he said. “That’s all I’ll say on that.”