The stage was set for Hollywood Brown to be a fantasy football darling in 2024 after his move to the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason. However, bad luck appears to have put a dampener on that excitement with Brown getting hurt during his first in-game action for the team this preseason.
Let’s examine Brown’s latest injury update and what it means ahead of Thursday’s opener against the Baltimore Ravens.
What Is the Latest on Hollywood Brown’s Injury?
The Chiefs’ presumptive WR2 fell awkwardly on his shoulder in the team’s first preseason game. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution but is otherwise fine in terms of his overall health. The shoulder, however, is not fine.
Brown is dealing with a sternoclavicular joint dislocation. It’s a rare injury that, to my knowledge, has only otherwise happened to an NFL player once — Tyreek Hill in 2019. That injury cost Hill four games.
Brown has already been ruled out for Week 1, and fantasy managers shouldn’t expect him to play in Week 2, either. However, he shouldn’t be out much longer than that and is worth taking a chance on if the injury discount persists.
Hollywood Brown’s Fantasy Outlook
Brown is coming off the worst season of his career, averaging 9.6 fantasy points per game last year with the Arizona Cardinals.
The good news is we can pretty easily explain it away. For starters, Brown was without Kyler Murray for half the season. Although he saw a healthy 22.8% target share, his catchable target rate was among the worst in the league. It’s easy to blame bad quarterback play for Brown’s struggles, and that’s exactly what we should do.
Just two years ago, Brown averaged 13.0 fantasy points per game. In 2022, he averaged 14.1 fantasy points per game.
Now, playing with Mahomes in a Kansas City offense that had a 61% neutral-game-script pass rate last season (compared to 53% from Arizona), not only should Brown’s quality of target increase but so should the overall volume.
MORE: PFN’s Consensus 2024 Fantasy Football Rankings
Brown’s SC joint injury sustained in the first preseason game will lower his cost. Given that he avoided surgery, combined with this being the same injury Tyreek Hill suffered in 2019, which cost him four games, I am not docking Brown much as a result.
Even if he misses the first week or two of the season, that’s not enough for me to significantly lower my ranking.
– Kyle Soppe, Fantasy Football Analyst
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