Not a lot of football players take less money to sign with a specific team. But Hollywood Brown did so to play for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Brown signed a one-year, $7-million deal with incentives to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes and try to help the Chiefs become the first team to three-peat as Super Bowl champs.
“When the Chiefs are interested in you, you’ve got to take a look at that,” Brown said Monday. “Of course, I can go get some money at other places, but at the end of the day it’s about winning. It’s about what I want, and I feel like everything worked out the way it should.”
Brown spent the past two seasons with the Cardinals, going 4-13 both years. Brown also battled injuries the past two seasons and caught 51 passes for 574 yards and four touchdowns last season. In 2021 with Baltimore, Brown caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns.
The speedy Brown, who played collegiately at Oklahoma, gives the Chiefs another downfield passing threat as they looked to upgrade their receiving corps with the right talent and price, and Brown fit both categories. Now he says he can showcase his skillset more with the likes of Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid and Rashee Rice.
“I feel like I can affect all three levels of the game — short, medium and deep,” Brown said. “I feel like at times in Baltimore and Arizona I showed flashes of things that I could do but not on a consistent basis. So I feel like here there’s guys around that are interchangeable and can complement each other and the best can come out of everyone.”
Brown said he and Mahomes were in contact throughout the negotiation process, and he said that he and Mahomes will likely get together and start working this week.
“From the outside looking in he seems like a guy that is very passionate, and I’m a very passionate person,” Brown said. “He wants to win, will do everything necessary to win. That’s somebody you want to play with. You want to play with someone who will bring the best out of you, that’s going to push your game to the next level. I feel like he’s definitely one of those types of guys.
“The arm talent, the deep arm talent — it speaks for itself. What can’t he do? He can extend plays, whatever he has to do to win a game I feel like I’ve watched him do it. From making those big plays to methodically moving down the field to using his feet to playing injured. Those are all qualities and traits of a guy you want to play for.”
