Despite a loss in the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs remain one of the best teams in football. As a result, their free-agent shopping list wasn’t as long as some of the team’s trying to chase them, and Kansas City has a roster that looks similar to the one that has reached the big game in five of the past six seasons.

If anything, the Chiefs’ moves had to do with retaining some of their key players. One veteran’s return was shrouded with some doubt after a lost season in 2024, but his return has made life easier and is already paying off toward a quest for another championship.

Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown’s Return is Worth Every Penny for Chiefs Offense

One of the Chiefs first moves of the offseason was to re-sign receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. The veteran has been one of the league’s most dangerous deep threats during his career, but he didn’t make his desired impact after signing with Kansas City in the spring of 2024.

After suffering a shoulder injury during the preseason, Brown was out of action until December, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if the Chiefs had moved on. But Kansas City brought him back on a one-year, $7 million contract, and Patrick Mahomes has already seen the impact his return has made on the receiving core.

“Whenever you have a guy that you spent that time with and had that connection with, you can hit the ground running because you know those different things,” Mahomes told reporters during mandatory minicamp. “So seeing that with Xavier [Worthy] – and Hollywood and Rashee [Rice] and JuJu [Smith-Schuster], all these guys – man, they’ve done a great job of working and continue to work to get even better. You can talk about stuff that’s happened in previous years and that’s where me and Travis [Kelce] have had so much success. When you get multiple years of reps with guys, you continue to get even better and better on the football field.”

To summarize Mahomes’s comments: the more reps he can get with his pass catchers, the better. And it should translate onto the field now that Brown is back for a second season.

Kansas City’s passing game struggled for the first time with Mahomes under center last season, posting his lowest yardage total (3,928) and yards per attempt (6.8) since taking over as a starter in 2018 and his lowest touchdown total (26) since 2019. Mahomes was also unable to get some of the reps with his receivers, as Brown and Rice suffered significant injuries that kept them off the field.

Now healthy, Brown should be able to lead an improved passing attack. The 28-year-old only caught nine passes for 91 yards in two regular-season games and made just five grabs for 50 scoreless yards in the run to the Super Bowl. But with a career average of 11.6 yards per reception, he could be the field-stretching target the Chiefs have lacked since Tyreek Hill was traded.

This would mean good things for the rest of the Chiefs’ passing game and help them make another trip to the Super Bowl in 2025.