It’s still possible that Kansas City’s veteran wideout could be available in the postseason.
On Saturday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Hollywood Brown — who had been expected to miss 4-6 weeks for the sternoclavicular joint dislocation he suffered in preseason Week 1 — is “not expected to play in the regular season.” Schefter said his sources have told him Brown was not expected to be back “any sooner than mid-January.”
On Friday, we learned that Brown was being placed on the team’s Reserve Injured (IR) list. That will allow him to undergo surgery not originally believed to be required — as later explained by Kansas City’s vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder. Since players on Reserve/Injured must miss at least four games before returning, this meant the earliest Brown could have returned was for the Week 7 game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Other Friday reporting, however, suggested that Brown would miss “several months.” That meant Brown would miss a minimum of 13 weeks, making it possible for him to return with only two or three weeks remaining in the regular season — but no sooner. It would be very unusual, however, for Brown to go straight into a game after missing more than four months of games and practices; that’s not how the Chiefs would typically handle such a situation.
So adding Schefter’s report to what we learned on Friday suggests that Brown could be designated to return from Reserve/Injured from mid to late December. That would open a 21-day window where he could practice with the team and get ramped up to game speed — just in time for the most important part of the season: the playoffs.
The 2024 season’s Wild Card round will be played January 11-12, followed by the Divisional Round January 18-19.
