Cardinals' Hollywood Brown: 'I can be a playmaker no matter who's out there playing QB'

When the Cardinals traded for him on draft day 2022, Marquise Brown immediately felt free. It was like finding sanctuary for the then-fourth year wide receiver. Coming to Arizona to reunite with his best friend and college teammate, quarterback Kyler Murray, meant Brown could finally feel like his nickname “Hollywood” would truly mean something in the NFL.

He was joining a wide-open offense that often utilized four wide receivers in an up-tempo scheme, the perfect tonic for a young wideout with speed to kill.

But after a disastrous 4-13 season, the Cardinals cleaned house, coach Kliff Kingsbury and his high-octane offense were out, and in came coach Jonathan Gannon and a far more conservative, run-oriented offense under first-year offensive coordinator Drew Petzing.

Brown must have been crushed.

“Not really. I mean, I played in Baltimore,” he said, chuckling.

He laughed a little bit more.

“I played in Baltimore. I done been in it,” Brown said. “When I met with these guys and they told me their philosophies and their thought process, I was like, ‘OK, I can work with that.’ And I feel like this was something that we need as a team and something we can thrive in.”

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Let that sink in for a moment. Here’s a proud and confident NFL wide receiver who loves the limelight, happens to be in a very important contract year, and he’s fully on board with a slowed down, more methodical offensive approach that could cut into his individual numbers. Less stats could mean a lesser payday.

Maybe that’s why Brown is still here, and partly why DeAndre Hopkins no longer is.

“From the first day I met really everyone in the building this year, I knew like, ‘I’m going to love these guys,’ ” Brown said, explaining why he quickly bought into Gannon’s and Petzing’s plans. “It’s been a back and forth – them trusting me, I’m trusting them, trusting their process and me being accountable. That’s pretty much what we’ve been building.”

With Hopkins now playing for the Titans following his outright release in late May, the 26-year-old Brown immediately steps into the role of the Cardinals’ No.1 wideout. He’ll have to navigate the first part of the season without Murray as Arizona’s QB1 continues his rehab from a torn ACL, but Brown said he’s ready to strap it up and go play with whoever lines up under center – be it newly-acquired Joshua Dobbs, or rookie Clayton Tune, the fifth-round pick out of Houston.

“Whenever he’s out there ready, he’s going to be ready,” Brown said of Murray. “For me, my job is to go out there and be open for whoever the quarterback is and make plays for the team. So, that’s all I’m going to go out there and try to do.”

One would assume there’s a ton of weight on Brown’s shoulders as the 2023 season gets under way, but Petzing doesn’t it see it that way.

“I’d say no more than the other 23, 25 guys that are going to be on the offense,” he said. “We all care about our job and he doesn’t have to do anything more than his job. It’s, ‘I don’t have to do anything more than mine,’ and I think he’s really embraced that mindset. It’s, ‘Hey, here's your assignment; go out and do it at a high level,' which we know he’s capable. It’s been fun. It’s been good. I look forward to seeing him out there.”

Yeah, but if he’s your team’s top receiver, isn’t there a little bit more you’re expecting out of him? Does Brown have to carry most of the load regardless of what the offense is going to look like?

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“I mean, certainly, if he’s one of the players we want to highlight, he’s got to make the plays when his number is called,” Petzing said. “And he might be called on slightly more than someone else. … But he would want that role. He’s that type of player that says, ‘Hey, I want my number called every time,’ which obviously we can’t throw him the ball every single play. But I think he’s really embraced the mindset of like, ‘Hey, when my number’s called, I’m going to go out there and do it and when someone else’s number is called, I’m going to make sure I’m a part of their success as well,’ so it’s been good.”

Ask Brown if he thinks he can still find a way to play his best football without Murray and he’ll tell you yes.

“I feel like I’ve got the most confidence in myself that I can be a playmaker no matter who’s out there playing quarterback,” he said.

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Ask Brown how big a year this is for him considering he’s in the last year of the rookie deal he signed with the Ravens, and he’ll downplay the question.

“I’m just taking it day by day,” he said. “I’m under contract right now, so I’m just trying to do what I’ve got to do.”

Ask Brown how he intends on handling the No.1 wideout role and he’ll tell you “just watch.”

“Just the way I come out and work every day, the way I attack the practice field, the way I attack meetings,” he said. “I know guys are looking at me, so I just want to set that standard so every guys knows this is the standard we’re going to be, this is how we’re going to attack.”

When Murray is finally able to hit the field and eventually takes over at QB1, Brown said the fireworks will begin to fly.

“Oh, he’s going to take it to a whole other level,” Brown said, referring to the offense and its capabilities in general. “I mean, Kyler’s that guy. You put him in any offense, he’s going to raise that level of the offense. However we look without him out there, we’re going to look better when he’s out there.”

And as Brown wrote on the platform X, formerly Twitter, he wouldn’t be surprised if Murray duplicates when former NFL running back Adrian Peterson did in 2012 when he came back from a torn ACL to win league Most Valuable Player honors.

“Just to spark some motivation for my guy,” Brown said when asked about the post. “People count him out, but I know the competitor he is. Whenever he is out there, he might win MVP, he might not. But I know he’s that caliber of player, that he’s the caliber of an MVP player and I know he’ll get back to that.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals' Marquise Brown perfectly content in new system