Why Hollywood Brown’s injury is a big blow to the Chiefs’ offensive revitalization

The injury history spanned 43 seconds in conversation, Marquise Brown rattling through the past six years of his life in a summation that could essentially be boiled down to a few words: a supreme talent marred by supreme absence.

The result, naturally, is a career defined more by its frustration than its production. But, as Brown described after a Chiefs practice a couple of weeks ago, he had become optimistic about putting all of that behind him.

Cautiously, of course.

“Knock on wood,” he said.

After all of one preseason game — one preseason snap — the Chiefs are now acutely affected by what has long haunted Hollywood Brown.

His history is now their history.

Brown suffered a sternoclavicular dislocation, an injury to his clavicle, in the Chiefs’ preseason-opening 26-13 loss to the Jaguars, Andy Reid said.

The injury, similar to what impaired Tyreek Hill in 2019 on this very field in Jacksonville, will cause Brown to miss time, likely even the team’s season opener next month against the Baltimore Ravens.

“God makes no mistakes,” Brown, who was in a Jacksonville-local hospital, posted on social media Saturday.

The first response is that Brown is not responsible for some sort of jinx, not only because that sort of thing is conspiracy rather than reality, but because what occurred Saturday does not go against the grain. It falls right inside it.

The second response is that the predictability of it is a shame, particularly when Brown spent the last several months working preventative measures to improve his health.

The third response? Let’s be honest: Any sort of Brown absence changes the Chiefs’ offense, because he is top of the list for why the offense could change.

A meaningless game just became awfully meaningful.

In case you missed it, the Chiefs had a bit of a maddening season a year ago. The reason you might have missed it, or at least put it out of your memory, is because they still won a second straight Super Bowl.

So who cares, right?

Well, except the Chiefs spent most of last season without the moniker of the NFL’s best team. They defied odds a year ago, not proved them right. It was, however, quite un-Chiefs-like, or at least quite un-Mahomes-like, to the point where he later said the season “wasn’t fun.”

There were lots of reasons why, but let’s not miss the extremely obvious:

Their wide receivers stunk.

And they stunk in one place more than everywhere else — they couldn’t catch the deep pass.

Mahomes was the quarterback’s worst-rated passer on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield, using PFF data, and this just might be related to that: They led the league in drops on passes thrown downfield. Even that is misleading, because it omits the numerous times they did not even track the football properly. The lack of in-air adjustments were confounding.

A bit out of Mahomes’ control, in other words.

Brown offers a solution to return it back to Mahomes’ control. His injury will not subtract that solution entirely, because it does not subtract him from the season in its entirety. He’ll be back. This is, ideally, a column about a short-term problem — but we have to recognize the reality that it’s been a long-term issue.

Brown likely won’t return before the Chiefs kick off the regular season on Sept. 5, and I’ll remind that they open their season against last year’s AFC No. 1 seed followed by a team that has beaten Mahomes three times already. They could use him. Their offensive game plan sure plans to use him.

Head coach Andy Reid is the one who compared Brown’s injury to one suffered by Hill, and that forced Hill to sandwich 35 days between football games. The Chiefs later called that timeline quick. The season opener is 29 days away.

Which means the Chiefs are likely staring at a season opener against a good team with just one addition to a wide receiver room most responsible for the worst season of Mahomes’ career: rookie Xavier Worthy.

At the onset of the offseason, the Chiefs set out to improve the receivers surrounding Mahomes but also improve them in a very specific way. They want him airing it out again. Reid has even nagged at Mahomes about it. Get back to his original self, if you will.

The success of it in practice has prompted offensive coordinator Matt Nagy to remind himself not to get carried away with his celebratory reactions.

Brown is a key piece. Injuries happen, of course, and some are more impactful than others.

With Brown, it’s not just his talent.

It’s his type of talent.

The Chiefs have built their training camp around that type of talent — and given Brown’s past, there has to be at least some trust their decision to revamp the offense came regardless of his addition. Because it’s needed.

The change in play design from the coach.

The change in mindset from the quarterback.

The change in the makeup of the receiver room has been such a neat fit to it all.

It’s on pause now.

Everything else still has to move forward.