The Baltimore Ravens decided they no longer needed the services of Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown, so they traded him to the Arizona Cardinals.
Coming into the 2022 NFL Draft, two things were obvious. One, the Baltimore Ravens needed another wide receiver, and the Arizona Cardinals were set at wide receiver.
After Day 1, it doesn’t appear either was true. The Ravens shocked the NFL by trading Hollywood Brown and the No. 100 pick to the Cardinals for the No. 23 pick.
This writer will try to make sense of the entire situation.
What does the Hollywood Brown trade mean for the Ravens?
The Ravens aren’t interested in upgrading their wide receiver room. Lamar Jackson has yet to sign a deal, and the Ravens aren’t in any hurry to get him help.
Instead of adding talent, the Ravens traded away Lamar Jackson’s most productive wideout. Currently, Jackson has Rashod Bateman and Devin Duvernay has his primary wideouts. It’s not to say they can’t develop, but they haven’t shown the ability yet.
Ravens GM Eric DeCosta wasn’t interested in taking a wideout to replace Brown, at least not on Day 1. He did get Lamar Jackson some help along the offensive line with center Tyler Linderbaum.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens on Day 2 and Day 3 of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Hollywood Brown brings speed to the Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals had two major needs coming into the 2022 NFL Draft — edge rusher and corner. No one expected the Cardinals to trade for a wide receiver — they didn’t need to.
This writer thought they let Christian Kirk walk because of his asking price, but they also have a nice core of guys led by arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL in DeAndre Hopkins.
AJ Green is the old man on the roster, with two young guys in Rondale Moore and Andy Isabella.
Throw Hollywood Brown in the mix, and the Cards have the best core in NFC South. Kyler Murray can smile even though he doesn’t have his contract now that he has his old college teammate. In his first three seasons, Brown has 195 catches for 2,361 yards and 21 touchdowns.
He had his best year in 2021 with 91 catches, 1,008-yards, and six touchdowns. Expect fireworks from the Cardinals next season with Brown on the roster.