When the Ravens traded wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to the Cardinals for the 23rd and 100th picks in the 2022 NFL draft, it sent shockwaves around the NFL.
Brown, however, was already prepared for the moment to happen. Moments after the blockbuster trade, Brown appeared on the I Am Athlete podcast outlining how he quietly “asked the Ravens for a trade” following the 2021 season. Brown credited his personal “happiness” above playing in Baltimore while also stating that quarterback Lamar Jackson was not the issue.
“I didn’t go out and make anything public,” said Brown, who is under contract until 2023 after Arizona reportedly exercised his fifth-year option on Friday. “I just kept working. I talked to Lamar [Jackson] about it after my second year. … After my third year leading up to the end of the season, he [Jackson] was not playing. I let him know again like, ‘Yeah bro, I can’t do it.
“I love Lamar. It’s just the system wasn’t for me, personally. I love all of my teammates… but it was something I had to think about for myself.”
Brown posted career highs in receptions (91) and yards (1,008) with six touchdowns in the 2021 season. When the trade happened, Jackson was not happy.
During the podcast, Brown also addressed the notion of looking at the production of other star wide receivers in the league like the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill—three names raised by host Brandon Marshall—and feeling like he had more to offer.
“I’ll go for 100-yard games and… then we go to games where we are losing and they wait until like third or the fourth [quarter] to start getting me the ball,” Brown said. “I help the team win and the we go to the following game I don’t get the ball.
“I am too much of a competitor to not get the ball until the fourth… to not help my team and we are down and out. I train with a lot of guys, a lot of guys have a lot of respect for me and they come to me for advice when they are putting up more yards and stats than me.”
Brown joins Arizona, a team that features one of his “four closest” friends in quarterback Kyler Murray, his former Oklahoma teammate, while also getting the opportunity to learn from five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
“I love Kyler and I am fortunate enough to go there and learn from Hop [DeAndre Hopkins],” he said.
The Cardinals finished 11–6 last season after starting 7–0.
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