KANSAS CITY, Mo — Hollywood Brown is likely to miss at least a month, which puts his availability for the start of the Kansas City Chiefs’ season in jeopardy.
Brown’s injury was the biggest takeaway from the preseason opener Saturday in Jacksonville.
Brown, a former star at the University of Oklahoma, was the Chiefs’ biggest free-agent acquisition during the offseason.
He only signed a one-year deal worth $7 million, but the former first-round pick by Baltimore in 2019, who topped 1,000 yards in his third season before forcing a trade to Arizona, was expected to revitalize Kansas City’s big-play capability.
Brown didn’t get to flash those skills Saturday in the Chiefs’ 26-13 loss at Jacksonville.
He caught an 11-yard pass on the game’s opening snap then left the game after suffering a shoulder injury on the tackle.
Coach Andy Reid said after the game that Brown suffered the same injury that sidelined Tyreek Hill for four weeks early in the 2019 season — a sternoclavicular joint “post,” or posterior, dislocation.
“I think he’ll miss some time,” Reid said.
Reid said Brown was taken to a Jacksonville-area hospital for treatment.
“They’ll check him out and they’re working on that as we speak,” Reid said.
When Hill suffered the same injury — ironically enough, on the same field in the 2019 regular-season opener — he spent the night at the hospital and flew home with a member of the Chiefs training staff on Monday after the game, head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder said at the time.
Hill was expected to need four to six weeks to recover. He missed four games, returning to game action 35 days after suffering the initial injury.
Kansas City opens the regular season in 26 days against Brown’s original team, the Ravens, on Sept. 5 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs’ second game, a home showdown Sept. 15 against Cincinnati, is 36 days from Saturday’s game in Jacksonville.
A sternoclavicular joint dislocation involves a complete tear of the ligaments in the joint, which allows the collarbone to dislocate toward the sternum, according to the National Institutes of Health.
When Hill was injured, the bones were reduced, or restored to their proper position, under anesthesia. No surgery was required.
Hill finished the 2019 season with 58 catches for 860 yards and seven touchdowns in 12 games, so he was productive after the injury healed.
Posterior dislocations of the joint can be dangerous, especially if they damage nearby vessels or internal organs, but Hill didn’t suffer any such complications and there’s been no indication Brown did either.
Additionally, Reid said offensive lineman McKade Mettauer, an undrafted rookie from Oklahoma, suffered a left knee injury in the fourth quarter.
He noted that backup left tackle Wanya Morris, yet another former Sooners football star, missed the Jaguars game with a knee injury that flared up this week at training camp.
But Reid said there were no other injuries in Jacksonville.
—
