The Kansas City Chiefs not only got wide receiver Marquise Brown back at practice Friday, but the two-time defending Super Bowl champs are releasing kicker Matthew Wright in anticipation of injured Harrison Butker’s return on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.
Butker, 29, has not played since the Chiefs’ 16-14 home win over the Denver Broncos on November 10 following a knee surgery.
‘We’re going to see how he does. He has a chance,’ Reid said earlier this week of Butker playing on Sunday.
Wright was Special Teams player of the Week before being released on Saturday.
ESPN and NFL Network were the first to report the moves.
Brown returned to practice with the Chiefs on Friday, and there is hope within the organization that one of their premier free-agent acquisitions finally will be able to contribute during the stretch run and the playoffs.
Once thought to be lost for the season, Brown has been on injured reserve since dislocating the sternoclavicular joint in his shoulder when he was tackled on the first play of their preseason opener against Jacksonville. Brown’s return for a quick, cold practice opens a 21-day window in which the Chiefs must decide whether to activate him, though that decision will likely come much sooner than that.
Harrison Butker (right) and Marquise Brown (left) are on their way back to the lineup
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid got some good news this week after months of injury woes
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said that Brown wouldn’t play Sunday in Cleveland, but there is a chance he could return the following week for a Saturday matinee against Houston or a trip to Pittsburgh on Christmas Day.
‘It’s nice to have him back out there and going. He got a lot of good work in today,’ Reid said. ‘You can tell he’s been working. The conditioning part wasn’t a problem. He took quite a few reps.’
Brown signed a $7 million deal with Kansas City in the hopes that a big season with Patrick Mahomes and Co. would translate into a multiyear deal next offseason. He has 313 catches for 3,644 yards and 28 TDs over his first five seasons in the NFL.
He took part in the entire offseason program with Kansas City, even spending time with Mahomes in Texas, only to dislocate the sternoclavicular joint in his shoulder when he was tackled Aug. 10 in a game against Jacksonville.
The injury was expected to keep Brown out for a matter of weeks, but when scans showed the joint not healing properly, he underwent surgery to repair it. The hope was that Brown could heal in time to help during the playoffs; the Chiefs have clinched the AFC West for a ninth straight year and have a two-game lead in the race for the No. 1 seed and first-round bye.
‘As a person we’re excited to get Hollywood back whenever he’s ready, just because his personality is so infectious,’ Chiefs wide receivers coach Joe Bleymaier said. ‘The football side of stuff, he’s built those reps, that camaraderie with Pat and other receivers — he’s been here. He’s done it. He’s done it in the past, he just hasn’t done it in a game, which is strange.’
Brown will be returning to a wide receiver corps that looks vastly different than the Chiefs expected in the offseason.
The Chiefs signed veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster after Brown was hurt for additional depth, then watched Rashee Rice go down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 4 against the Chargers. The Chiefs promptly engineered a trade with the Titans to get three-time All-Pro Deandre Hopkins, then lost Mecole Hardman to a knee injury just last week.
‘He wouldn’t be coming back if he wasn’t 100 percent and ready to roll,’ Bleymaier said of Brown. ‘Maybe its just the optimism (but) you hope he’s right there. He’s done it. We’ve seen him do it. Now it’s a matter of him going out and doing it.’