Kansas City Chiefs unrestricted free agent subtly broke his own news regarding his standing with the team
The Chiefs may have to replace Hollywood Brown.
The Kansas City Chiefs face a difficult situation. With Rashee Rice potentially in legal trouble, Patrick Mahomes may enter 2026 with only two returning receivers from last season. Rice, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Nikko Remigio, and Hollywood Brown may all leave KC.
That would leave the Chiefs with only Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals before free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft. Some could re-sign, like Smith-Schuster or possibly Thornton. Still, it now seems clear Brown likely won’t return.
On Wednesday, Brown went live on his Twitch gaming channel and tweeted about it. After a fan commented that his team was full of podcasters and streamers, Brown clarified that he is no longer with the Chiefs and is currently a free agent. This public statement strongly suggests that Brown does not expect to return to Kansas City for the 2026 season.
The Chiefs will have to replace Brown, but have an issue
Kansas City’s major issue is limited resources. Mahomes recently restructured his contract to free up cap space, but the team is still just $10 million under the cap. They could cut players like Jawaan Taylor and Mike Danna to free up about $29 million more, yet the receiver market remains expensive.
The other option would be to go through the draft, which they will do. However, even if they draft one wide receiver, that would just give them three WRs on their team, as things currently stand. They need at least five or six for their 53-man roster. And they really can’t draft more than one receiver because they only have five draft picks. Could they trade to have more picks? Yes, but their picks are all in the first five rounds, so they may not want to trade back for more picks.
KC will have to figure out something, or Mahomes will have no weapons to throw to. Then, if you add in the wrinkle of Travis Kelce possibly retiring, that takes another weapon away from Mahomes.
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