Brown healthy, bigger, stronger
Baltimore wide receiver determined to build off solid rookie year
Marquise Brown put up some respectable numbers as a rookie last year with the Baltimore Ravens, leading the team’s wide receivers in receptions and touchdowns as the primary downfield target for league MVP Lamar Jackson.
Now, after an offseason in which Brown fastidiously lifted weights and finally put a lingering injury behind him, the man with the nickname “Hollywood” is preparing for a sprint to stardom.
Drafted 25th overall in the 2019 NFL draft, Brown never fully hit his stride last season after returning from surgery on his right foot for a lisfranc injury. Brown still was plenty fast but lighter and just not as confident running his routes as when he was at Oklahoma.
“Sometimes I tried to make a cut my foot wasn’t able to make,” Brown said Wednesday on a Zoom call. “Doing stuff that I was used to doing and not able to do it, it was frustrating.”
Brown began his offseason by working to get his foot at 100 percent. Then he hit the weight room and ran hard on the track.
“It must’ve just clicked for him this offseason, really, to get healthy, to start eating right, to start training harder,” Ravens strength and conditioning coach Steve Saunders said. “It would’ve been really easy to sit in the sofa the past four months (during a pandemic) and do nothing. To Hollywood’s credit, he got after it.”
When Brown showed up to training camp last week, he had an additional 20 pounds of muscle and a can-do attitude.
“I feel I’ve got bright days ahead,” he said. “I feel a hundred times better than I did last year. All I’ve got to do now is focus on plays instead of focusing on my feet and trying to stay healthy.”
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a season in which he had 46 catches for 584 yards and seven touchdowns, Brown intends to do more in 2020. If there’s a deep ball up for grabs or a cornerback that needs to be cut down when Jackson is off and running, the 5-foot-9-inch Brown intends to be there for his teammates.
“The first thing he said when he came into the building was, ‘I’m trying to block somebody. I’m trying to set the tone in the running game,’ ” Ravens receiver Willie Snead said. “I could tell by his build that he took that part seriously.”
Blocking is extremely important for a team that last year set an NFL record with 3,296 yards rushing. But if the Ravens are to get deep into the playoffs, they’re going to need to keep the defense guessing with an improved passing game.
That’s where Brown comes in. “I feel like he is going to have a huge jump — more than people may think,” Jackson said. “He was hurt last year but he went out there and battled his tail off each and every game on a messed up foot. And now his full potential is going to show this year.”