NFL Free Agency: Marquise Brown to sign one-year, $11 million deal with Kansas City Chiefs
For the first time in his career, Marquise Brown hit the open market as a free agent. Now, the sixth-year receiver from Oklahoma has made his decision on where he’ll play in the NFL next season.
Brown will sign a one-year deal worth up to $11 million with the Kansas City Chiefs, according to ESPN.
Brown, who was the No. 25 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft as a first-rounder out of Oklahoma, has spent the past five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals.
Over 72 games in his career, Brown has caught 313 passes overall for 3,644 yards, good for 11.6 yards per catch, and 28 touchdowns.
Brown started out as a Raven where he started 41 of 46 appearances in three years. He finished as Lamar Jackson’s top target as far as wide receivers while finishing behind only TE Mark Andrews statistically. That included a career-best year in 2021 where he caught 91 passes to crack 1,000 yards and score six times.
However, after that season, his relationship with the franchise ended. With that, Baltimore traded Brown and a third-round pick to Arizona during the 2022 NFL Draft. That deal reunited him with his former Sooner quarterback in Kyler Murray.
During the past two seasons with the Cardinals, Brown has again been a leading receiver with 118 catches for 1,283 yards. His touchdown numbers have gone down, though, with just seven compared to triple that over his first three seasons. Injuries have played a part in that as he has missed eight games and spent time on injured reserved.
More on the 2024 NFL offseason, free agency
The NFL 2024 calendar year begins at 4 p.m. ET on March 13. At that time, contracts running through 2023 officially run out, making those players free agents. Prior to the beginning of free agency, teams will have a chance to designate one franchise or transition tag player, starting on Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. ET and ending on March 5. Beginning March 11 through March 13 teams can enter into a legal negotiation with players who are set to become unrestricted free agents.
In addition to NFL free agency, the new year also marks the beginning of all trades being made official by the league office. April 19 marks the deadline to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets. On April 24, the deadline for teams to match restricted free agent offers sheets hits. Following the restricted free agent deadline follows the 2024 NFL Draft, which runs from April 25-27.
More on restricted, exclusive rights free agents
Players with only three years of accredited NFL experience become restricted free agents. Their original team will have the option to apply first-round, second-round, original-round, and right-of-fight-of-first-refusal tenders on players at escalating price tags. The higher the round, the more expensive the tender amount; however, if a separate team does offer a contract and the original team does not match that round pick will be conveyed from the new team to the original team. Right of first refusal only gives a team the option to match or not. If they don’t match, they get nothing in return. An original-round tender would send a draft pick from whatever round the player was drafted back to the original team if they chose not to match. The original team will have five days to match once a player signs an offer sheet from a new team.