When Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Hollywood Brown suffered a sternoclavicular joint dislocation on the first offensive play of preseason, the initial hope was that he would return after about six weeks — but when we learned his injury would require surgery, it was feared the Chiefs had lost one of their top pass-catchers for the regular season.

But on Saturday — after just four practices back with the team — the offseason’s marquee free-agent signing made his Kansas City debut with a 12-yard catch to convert a fourth-and-1 that led to the first touchdown in the team’s 27-19 victory over the Houston Texans. He finished the game with five catches (on eight targets) for 45 yards.

All along, Brown had been shooting for a December return.

“I always was eyeing, you know, like around Christmas,” he told reporters on Monday, as the team was preparing for its Week 17 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I didn’t know when would it be, but I was determined to try to get back around this point.”

Brown was focused on getting back with his teammates.

“They’ve been through a lot,” he said, “so I wanted to get out there, get in football shape [amd] get my legs right — [to] get into the flow of things before the playoffs.”

Head coach Andy Reid acknowledged the team had deliberately limited Brown’s time in his first game back.

“For the snaps he had,” said Reid, “I thought he played a pretty good football. Also, he got to take a hit. When you have that upper body injury, just getting that first hit is a big thing.”

Just the same, the veteran wideout would have been happy to have a larger role.

“I definitely was trying to play more,” Brown admitted, “but [I] trust the process.”

That trust is built on Brown’s admiration for how Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy are using him.

“They do a good job here,” he noted. “They put me in stuff that I was familiar with; it was a lot of stuff that I knew. [But I’ve] just got to keep integrating myself and the playbook and getting comfortable with more and more things.”

For Brown, the next step is to continue building his chemistry with quarterback Patrick Mahomes — and his body back into football shape.

“[I’ve] got to get the reps in practice,” he told his listeners. “If you get them in practice, it translates to the games.”

Mahomes is happy for Brown to get them — especially since his return coincides nicely with the emergence of rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. Even without Rahsee Rice, Mahomes thinks the wide receiver corps is starting to look more like the one the Chiefs had envisioned for 2024.

“I think you’re starting to see kind of what this offense was meant to be,” he said on Monday. “Obviously we don’t have Rashee out there. But [we have] some other guys we’ve added to try to fill that role as best we can. You can see where we thought we were going to be at the beginning of the year. And obviously we have to ramp it up fast against some really good teams.

“But I thought [Saturday] was a great start — having Hollywood out there for a limited number of snaps — and him making an impact on the game [and on] Xavier and everybody. That was a good defense we went up against.

“It’ll be another challenge this week. Can we build on that and build some momentum into the playoffs?”

That’s a question we can’t wait to see answered.