KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In an unexpected and unfortunate twist, the Kansas City Chiefs will play the majority of their regular season without Marquise Brown, the projected No. 1 receiver.
The Chiefs are expected to place Brown on the injured reserve list, which could occur as soon as Friday afternoon, and he will need surgery to repair his dislocated sternoclavicular joint (commonly called the SC joint) more than a month after sustaining a dislocated collarbone injury, according to a league source. The SC joint connects the collarbone to the sternum.
Brown, Kansas City’s biggest acquisition in free agency, is expected to miss several months as part of his rehab. If his recovery goes well, he could return to the field at some point in December, which would give him a few games to get into a rhythm with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the offense before the start of the postseason.
Brown sustained his injury last month on the first snap in the Chiefs’ opening preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy wanted to get Brown involved early in the exhibition.
Mahomes completed an 11-yard pass to Brown, showing the strong connection he and Brown established throughout the offseason and training camp. But after making the reception, Brown was driven to the turf awkwardly on his left shoulder while being tackled by cornerback Montaric Brown.
The receiver left EverBank Stadium to be evaluated at a local hospital and stayed overnight before flying back to Kansas City. At the time, the doctors in Jacksonville and the Chiefs’ medical staff believed Brown didn’t need surgery, which was exactly what former Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill experienced when he suffered the same injury in September 2019 during a season-opening victory over the Jaguars.
In most instances when surgery is not required, the timeline for a full recovery is four to six weeks. Hill missed four games — and a total of 34 days — before he returned in a Week 6 game against the Houston Texans. Earlier this week, Brown hoped to return to the practice field with a chance of playing a small role in the Chiefs’ home game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, the 36th day since his injury.
“They all set a little differently, so it’s something that has to move to get back into place and heal differently, from what I understand,” Reid said Wednesday of Brown’s recovery from a dislocated collarbone. “I’m not a physician by any means, but you’re talking just centimeters of where it being off can be a problem, so you want to make sure those things are healed and in the right spots.
“We’re having him see different (specialists) that are experts. I don’t think there’s a ton of data on it, especially in our field.”
The problem for Brown, though, is his collarbone didn’t set correctly on its own.
Even though Brown wanted to participate in practice this week, images of his collarbone showed it was not properly healing on its own. Without corrective surgery, Brown could have sustained a more severe injury if he played Sunday and was tackled in a way similar to what occurred in the preseason opener.
In March, Brown signed a one-year deal worth up to $11 million to help bolster Kansas City’s depth at receiver.
Listed at 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, Brown spent the past two years with the Arizona Cardinals, generating 1,283 yards on 118 catches in 26 games. The Chiefs last had such a productive receiver over a two-year stretch with Hill, whom they traded to the Miami Dolphins in March 2022 for five draft picks.
(Photo: Denny Medley / Imagn Images)
