KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Chiefs wide receiver Marquise Brown will have surgery on his dislocated shoulder joint next week and be placed on injured reserve, keeping one of their biggest free-agent acquisitions out for at least four weeks and perhaps much longer.
Brown, who signed a $7 million contract with Kansas City for this season, dislocated his sternoclavicular joint when he was tackled upon making a catch on Aug. 10 in Jacksonville. The team did not put him on IR when they cut their roster after training camp, hoping that he would be back around the start of the season, but the injury did not heal properly.
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“The protocol is you look at that in a week and make sure it's still in place. It was," Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said after a final practice for Sunday's game against Cincinnati. “He was doing great in rehab, we were talking a return-to-play plan. He had one last check of another image to do at four weeks out from the injury, and it looked like the bone had moved.”
The Chiefs consulted with several doctors before deciding on surgery. The procedure will take place Monday in Vail, Colorado.
“Everybody involved through it was a little too risky for him to play without having this operated on,” Burkholder said. “He'll have it fixed and we'll go from there. There's no timelines because we don't know (how surgery will go) yet.”
Brown has been slowed by injuries throughout his six-year NFL career. He had foot and ankle injuries as a rookie with Baltimore in 2019, a knee injury the following season, and ankle and hamstring problems in 2021. He was traded in April 2022 to Arizona, where he had more hamstring and foot problems the past two seasons.
His latest injury is similar to the dislocation sustained by then-Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill in Week 1 of the 2019 season, causing him to miss the next four weeks. Coincidentally, that injury also happened in Jacksonville.
“Next time we play down there, I'm not going to use any receivers,” Reid quipped.
Brown was hoping that a healthy season with Reid — and with Patrick Mahomes throwing the ball to him — would allow him to parlay a relatively modest one-year contract in Kansas City into a lucrative multiyear deal next offseason.
“Disappointed, frustrated and sad was the first wave of emotions once I realized I would need surgery, but that only lasted a day or so because of my faith in God,” Brown said on social media. “This too shall pass.”
Brown has been a dynamic playmaker when he's been healthy. He caught 98 passes for 1,008 yards when he appeared in all 16 games for the Ravens in 2021, and he has 313 catches for 3,644 yards and 28 touchdowns in 72 career games.
“He's a great kid, boy I tell you, and nobody wanted to do this more than he did," Reid said. “Our hearts go out to him but he'll get himself back and ready to go whenever that is. It does take a pretty extended amount of time to take place.”
Rather than an in-season injury that would have required the Chiefs to adjust on the fly, they spent much of training camp and the start of the regular season without Brown available anyway. And they play to move forward with their current group, led by second-year pro Rashee Rice and first-round draft pick Xavier Worthy.
Rice had seven catches for 103 yards and Worthy scored twice in last week's 27-20 victory over Baltimore.
The Chiefs also have veterans JuJu Smith-Schuster, Justin Watson, Mecole Hardman and Skyy Moore on the roster. They also could add Justyn Ross, Nikko Remigio or Montrell Washington from their practice squad.
“We'd love to have (Brown). You know that,” Reid said, “but on the other hand, I think we have some guys at that position. We have some depth there and feel good about that.”
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