Marquise Brown, Teammates/Staff, Speak on Breakout Game
It can be hard to take positives out of losses in the NFL, especially the more brutal/embarrassing kind. This is the case for the Arizona Cardinals after their 20-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams this past week.
The loss provided very few positives for the Cardinals. However, there were a few silver linings to focus on and the biggest of all was the breakout performance of wide receiver Marquise Brown.
In a game against the Rams that featured perhaps the best defensive back in all of football in Jalen Ramsey, Brown set a career high for receptions with a whopping 14 catches.
Prior to this, Brown had accumulated double-digit receptions in a game once in the 2021 season against the Green Bay Packers with a flat 10 receptions on 14 targets. Brown was also a member of the Baltimore Ravens at the time.
Brown had spent the first three years of his four-year career with the Ravens and caught passes from quarterbacks such as MVP winner Lamar Jackson. Brown was traded during the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft to the Cardinals, reuniting him with his college quarterback, Kyler Murray, from their days at Oklahoma together.
Following Brown's career day, we were able to catch up with Brown after the game in the team's locker room. We were able to ask Brown about his day and what it meant to him:
Considering this is Brown's first season in an entirely different offense and philosophy, seeing the 25-year-old's ascendance with the team has been incredibly impressive.
Speaking on his day, Brown was asked about his comfortability in the offense:
"More and more comfortable. They do a good job of helping me out. I just gotta continue to get better and keep working." -Marquise Brown
Brown has displayed a lot of confidence in his play throughout his career, but he's never been known as a trash-talking player. His response was very genuine and he didn't really gloat about his career day.
Brown had actually mentioned during the interview that he was unaware of his stats before someone mentioned it to him on the sidelines.
While Brown wasn't one to boast too highly about himself, hid receive some praise from his quarterback, Kyler Murray
"Solid. I know what he's capable of, I know what he's gonna do. What, he caught 14 balls today? Good things happen when you get the ball to the guys that make plays, and he made plays today." -Kyler Murray
Considering the chemistry the two had with the Sooners as college athletes, it was highly anticipated that they would click immediately in their first season together in the pros. The Cardinals have to be happy with their return investment thus far.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury also had this to say on Brown's afternoon:
"Yeah, they had some DB's out. We knew that. Ramsey is one of the best in the game so when he was elsewhere, we wanted to try and work that matchup and I thought Hollywood was open on some stuff and did a good job as he continues to get comfortable in the system. He plays hard and he's gonna be a really good player for us" - Kliff Kingsbury
Kingsbury definitely sees the value in Brown's capabilities with the team. His confidence continuing to grow in Brown will only mean a larger and larger role with the offense.
So long as he continues to step up when the call is made as he did vs. the Rams, we should continue to expect better and better days from the man dubbed "Hollywood."
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