Laddie Morse
On the very first play from scrimmage in Saturday evening’s Preseason Game One for the Kansas City Chiefs, WR Hollywood Brown was injured. He suffered a sternoclavicular joint dislocation by the Jags CB driving him into the ground on the tackle. You could tell it was a hard hit by the way third year defensive back, Montaric Brown, bounced him off the ground (0:05):
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The Chiefs HC Andy Reid compared Brown’s injury to Tyreek Hill’s injury back in 2019 when he missed four games. Ryan Tracy of RGR Football had the same thought I did, that Tyreek Hill’s chest is bigger and more muscular so it may take longer for Brown to recover (0:22):
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One very odd coincidence is that Tyreek Hill’s injury came against the same team, the Jaguars. However, that’s neither here nor there. Brown is scheduled to return after a few weeks. If he indeed doesn’t heal as fast as Hill did, by returning after four weeks off, it may be that Hollywood will not be back in action for K.C. until after their week six Bye Week. Here’s the Chiefs schedule for the first 7 weeks of the 2024 season:
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The next two weekends are out for sure with K.C. hosting the Lions and then the Bears. The only team Brown might have some extra motivation to play against is the Chiefs first regular season opponent: the Ravens. They are the team that drafted him 22nd overall in the 2019 NFL Draft… then three years later, Brown was traded away — on Draft Day — and even though he had asked to be traded, it was not a happy separation.
Hollywood is likely out for the first two weeks of the season, at any rate, but since he has no real personal — bone to pick — incentive to return to duty, he may not be expected to return until after the Bye Week when K.C. travels to San Francisco to face the 49ers in Week 7. Although I’ve been pushing for Brown to return after the Bye Week, it looks like that’s more and more of a possibility.
Hollywood’s Snaps
Players projected to take some of Hollywood’s reps are: Xavier Worthy, Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney or Mecole Hardman. Here’s the resoning behind each.
Xavier Worthy
Xavier Worthy is the number 2 wide receiver for now and it doesn’t make much sense to move him up when it means having to move every other WR up behind him. Wait-n-see (WnS).
Skyy Moore
Skyy Moore is the #4 WR at best (only while Justin Watson has been gone). If he could “act” like a #1 WR, don’t you think they’d already have him running in that role? – WnS… but I seriously doubt it.
Kadarius Toney
Kadarius Toney would be called upon if he was going to make the 53-man roster. Right now, I’m not leaning towards him making it on to the team, much less being used as a substitute for a #1 WR. KT has already been out a couple of time this Training Camp — and last year he spent 19 of 21 weeks on the injured list as outlined by KSCN — so it’s not looking good for him. No WnS for him… he’s just a Trade-him-if-you-can guy. Otherwise, I think he gets waived. Here’s the difference between being waived and being released.
Mecole Hardman
Mecole Hardman is a question mark to make the 53-man roster. He just re-signed with the Chiefs for $1.125M and that comes on the heals of him signing a $4M deal with the Jets last offseason. Maybe he wants to win? Who knows. But it does mean he’s be an easy man to release.
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None of these players mentioned above were Saturday evening standouts. Here’s Cole DeRuse of “How ‘Bout Those Chiefs” pointing out the top four players who did stand out in the Chiefs Preseason Game One (0:54):
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Someone who did have his fair share of snaps was Cornell Powell who had 29 of the offensive snaps, or 47%. Why mention Powell? Because he’s someone who could take Hollywood Brown’s snaps. No, he may not be as dynamic as Hollywood, but he could do the job. Then again… it might save him a spot on the 53-man roster.
Like David Bell, I was big on Cornell Powell when he first came out as a 5th round pick in 2021. He shared a similar physique as Travis Etienne, a buddy of his at Clemson.
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If physique was all that mattered, Powell would have been a starter year’s ago. Now, I’m in no way pushing for Cornell Powell to get Hollywood’s snaps, I’m just saying, maybe we’ve missed the boat on Powell, and maybe he’s better than many have thought he’d be.
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Here’s Powell doing the right thing. He runs a good route but QB Chris Oladokun decides to run the ball anyway.
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By the way, Lamar Jackson isn’t the only player to catch his own ball. Cornell Powell caught a pass then took a big shot on a play from the Jags Terrell Edmunds, fumbled it, but he recovered his own football which… just happened to land on his chest (0:11).
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Here’s Cornell Powell on Chiefs Concerns before the 2022 Training Camp talking about his attitude. Sounds right to me (0:38):
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What do you think?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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