Cardinals’ Marquise Brown feels Ravens didn’t ‘need’ him

Wide receiver Marquise Brown is happy to be with the Arizona Cardinals.

Furthermore, Brown feels that his former team, the Baltimore Ravens, didn’t “need” him, the Cardinals’ official team website reported.

“It’s about happiness,” Brown said. “I want to feel like I am a part of something to win. At the Ravens, I just felt like sometimes they really didn’t need me. Regardless if I was there or not, they were going to win games.

“I love the game too much. I want to be involved.”

In a draft night transaction, Arizona sent the No. 23 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to Baltimore for Brown and the No. 100 pick. The Ravens traded back to No. 25 with the pick they acquired from Arizona, eventually selecting Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum, while the Cardinals selected Cincinnati defensive lineman Myjai Sanders at No. 100.

Brown is coming off the most productive season of his NFL career, finishing 2021 with 1,008 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns on 91 receptions (11.1 yards per reception). The Ravens missed the AFC Playoffs for the first time since 2017 and have an uncertain future at quarterback with Lamar Jackson yet to be extended. 

Baltimore selected “Hollywood” Brown with the No. 25 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma. Brown was teammates with Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray in 2018, where the two led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff with Brown as the team’s leading receiver.

Murray thinks chemistry is “already built” between Murray and himself.

“I think [chemistry] is already built,” Murray said. “It’s the NFL, we still have to work on it. What we did, we did in the past. But there is a natural connection. It’s weird because we talk about it, but we haven’t been on the field together in a long time.”

Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who’s entering Year 4 in his post and signed an extension through 2027 in the offseason, sees Brown blending into Arizona’s offense.

“There are always going to be growing pains the first year in the offense,” Kingsbury said. “But as we have said all along his familiarity with the offense based on his college experience definitely helps, and his comfort level with the quarterback is huge. I expect by Week 1 he’ll understand what we are trying to accomplish.”

Brown is part of a pass-catching core that includes wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins, Rondale Moore and A.J. Green and tight end Zach Ertz. Hopkins, though, is suspended for the first six games of the 2022 regular season for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy.  

The Cardinals will aim to build on an 11-6 regular season that saw them crack the NFC playoffs for the first time since 2015. Arizona on Sunday hosts Baltimore in its second preseason affair.