Wide receiver is a major need for the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason, much like it was last offseason. Hopefully, GM Omar Khan finds a way to address the significant need in a big way.
Names likes DK Metcalf and Cooper Kupp are on the trade market, while others like Stefon Diggs, Tyler Lockett, Amari Cooper, DeAndre Hopkins, Darius Slayton and more are free agents at the start of the new league year. There’s some high-end talent at the top of the 2025 NFL Draft class at the position, too, so Khan has some options.
Chances are, he addresses the position early in free agency, shortly after the quarterback situation is settled. Names like Slayton and Cooper are popular connections to the Steelers, not to mention a guy like Keenan Allen. But for Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame, there’s one name that is a good fit for the Steelers that nobody is talking about at the position.
That would be former Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, the cousin of former Steelers’ receiver Antonio Brown.
“The Steelers need another playmaker on the outside opposite George Pickens, and Brown makes sense as a buy-low option,” Verderame writes of Brown as a fit for the Steelers. “Brown is likely looking at his second consecutive one-year deal after playing just two regular-season games for the Chiefs last season after a shoulder injury.
“At 27 years old and with multiple productive years in his past, he’ll command a decent chunk on a short-term pact.”
Brown was a former first-round pick of the Ravens in the 2019 NFL Draft at No. 25 overall coming out of Oklahoma. He then spent three seasons in Baltimore as a big-play threat due to his speed and route running, hauling in 195 passes for 2,361 yards and 21 touchdowns in 46 career games with the Ravens.
Coming off of a career-year in Baltimore in 2021 during which he had 91 receptions for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns, the Ravens surprisingly traded him on the night of Round 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft to the Arizona Cardinals. In return, the Cardinals sent a first-round pick to the Ravens and picked up Brown’s fifth-year option.
In two seasons with Arizona, Brown hauled in 118 passes for 1,283 yards and seven touchdowns in 26 games. Hitting free agency, Brown inked a one-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of the 2024 season, seemingly adding serious firepower to the Chiefs and QB Patrick Mahomes.
However, Brown suffered a serious shoulder injury in preseason and missed most of the season, returning in Week 16 against the Houston Texans, playing Christmas Day against the Steelers and then sitting out the regular season finale against the Denver Broncos.
In two games, Brown had just nine receptions for 91 yards, including four receptions for 46 yards against the Steelers on Christmas Day. In the playoffs, Brown had five receptions for 50 yards as the Chiefs reached a third-straight Super Bowl before losing to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, he’s set to hit free agency.
Pro Football Focus projects Brown to land a two-year, $18 million deal on the open market, with $10 million guaranteed. PFF currently ranks Brown as the sixth-best receiver in free agency, ahead of Darius Slayton, Keenan Allen, Diontae Johnson and Mike Williams inside the top 10.
