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THE Kansas City Chiefs could be in luck when it comes to getting an injured offensive playmaker back into the fold.
Andy Reid’s Chiefs squad has a chance of utilizing a key wide receiver who appears ahead of schedule.
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On Sunday morning, during NFL Network’s NFL GameDay show, reporter Ian Rapoport gave an update on the 27-year-old wideout Marquise Brown.
Rapoport revealed that the Chiefs star Brown, who hasn’t played this season after suffering a sternoclavicular shoulder joint injury during the preseason, was officially cleared by doctors to practice.
The insider added that Brown looked “impressive” during last Friday’s practice and that he has a “very real possibility” to play in the Week 16 game versus the Houston Texans on Saturday.
“Hollywood Brown officially was cleared by his doctors. [He] spent Thursday in Colorado this week to receive that final clearance after SC joint surgery. He practiced on Friday and from my understanding, he was so quick [and] so impressive in practice that there is a possibility – a very real possibility – that Hollywood Brown makes his Chiefs debut not in Week 17 or 18, but this coming week,” Rapoport said.
Rapoport’s optimistic report on Brown mirrors Reid’s update on the former first-round pick from Friday.
“He practiced today [and] did a nice job,” Reid said. “He won’t play this week, but it’s nice to have him back out there and going. He got a lot of good work in today.
“You can tell he’s been working, and the conditioning part wasn’t a problem. Like I said, he took quite a few reps.”
After suffering the injury in August, Brown initially was expected to miss the regular season after being placed on injured reserve but potentially return in the postseason.
And after successful surgery, he rehabbed and later made claims about making a late-season return.
Then, official reports came from NFL insiders that Brown was indeed eyeing to make his debut at the end of the regular season.
Last week, Kansas City brought Brown back from the injured reserve list and opened up a 21-day practice window which lets the team evaluate the wideout without having him on the 53-man roster.
The Chiefs can then decide whether to active him or place him back on injured reserve for the rest of the campaign.
It’s been believed that the Christmas Day Week 17 contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers is a target for Brown to return, but it’s possible for him to appear in Kansas City’s home outing versus the Texans.
The Chiefs are 13-1 and are coming off a 21-7 road victory over the Cleveland Browns in Week 15.
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However, Rapoport reported that tests confirmed Patrick Mahomes suffered a mild high-ankle sprain during the win on Sunday.
The three-time MVP suffered the injury in the second half of the Week 15 victory after multiple Browns defenders hit him high and low while he let go of an incomplete pass.
Backup Carson Wentz finished out the game and is expected to start in place of Mahomes, who is considered week-to-week.
Nonetheless, Brown can play this weekend and join a wide receiver group of DeAndre Hopkins, rookie Xavier Worthy, and JuJu Smith-Shuster, among others.
Kansas City has the No. 1 seed and has a two-game lead over the 11-3 Bills for the top spot.
