Will the Arizona Cardinals’ Marquise Brown live up to the hype?
Marquise Brown has the pressure of being a first-round pick all over again since being traded to the Arizona Cardinals.
When the Arizona Cardinals spent their first-round draft pick in a trade to acquire Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, expectations for Brown suddenly skyrocketed. Brown was coming off his first 1,000-yard season in a run-heavy offense with the Baltimore Ravens.
Since then, he’s reunited with Kyler Murray and Trace McSorley, two quarterbacks that he had caught passes from in the past. So, will Brown live up to the hype and fanfare that’s greeted him in the desert?
That was the question posed by Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox in a recent article. Knox went on to be included in the players that wouldn’t live up to the hype for the following reasons:
- Brown is too similar to Christian Kirk in all aspects
- Arizona overpaid for Brown
- The pressure of a first-round pick and replacing DeAndre Hopkins will affect Brown.
The question is, are these fair assessments to be made? We’ll take a stab at those in the following pages to see if Brown will truly live up to the hype, starting with the Kirk-Brown comparison.
The Arizona Cardinals may be onto something with Marquise Brown
While both Brown and Kirk were very similar in stats last season, the Arizona Cardinals could be looking into a strategy used by the Cincinnati Bengals. Specifically, they ignored the fact that they had a below-average offensive line, they drafted Joe Burrow’s top college target, JaMarr Chase.
| Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Year | G | Rec | Yds | TD | Y/R | Lng |
| 1 | Marquise Brown | 2021 | 16 | 91 | 1008 | 6 | 11.1 | 49 |
| 2 | Christian Kirk | 2021 | 17 | 77 | 982 | 5 | 12.8 | 50 |
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2022.
Chase was one of the most dominant wide receivers in the league as a rookie, and the production between those two was legendary. However, Brown’s familiarity with Murray as his college quarterback should help him outperform Kirk.
Kirk and Brown’s stats were very similar, but if there’s anything that’s going to help Brown, it’s Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid offense. There will be fewer reps lost to running the ball between the 20s. As a result, Brown will have a higher floor here in Arizona than Kirk will in Jacksonville.
Verdict: Knox is incorrect. Brown should pay off for the Cardinals if all goes well.