After just three years in Baltimore, Marquise Brown's time with the Ravens is officially over. In one of the most surprising trades of the first round, the Ravens made the decision to trade their star receiver to the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals were clearly coveting Brown because they paid a steep price to get him. To make the trade happen, the Cards sent their first-round pick (23rd overall) to Baltimore in exchange for Brown and a third-round pick (100th overall).
The crazy thing about the trade is that the Ravens and Cardinals actually agreed to it BEFORE the draft, and then they were able to keep things quiet for several hours before the deal was actually announced.
The #Cardinals and #Ravens trade had been agreed upon and kept quiet. Owner Michael Bidwill this afternoon flew to LV, picked up Hollywood Brown & his girlfriend, brought them to AZ in time for Brown to come on stage during the Cardinals draft party right after the trade happened
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) April 29, 2022
The trade means that Kyler Murray will now have a new weapon who should be able to contribute right away in Arizona's offense. Murray and Brown are familiar with each other after spending two seasons together in college at Oklahoma. Brown's best season with Murray came in 2018 when he caught 75 passes for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns and the Cardinals QB seemed pretty excited at the thought of being reunited with his former college teammate.
Let’s run it back! Hollywood to the desert… Y’all welcome my boy! @Primetime_jet 🔥🥋🚀
— Kyler Murray (@K1) April 29, 2022
Although the Cardinals have DeAndre Hopkins on the roster as their No. 1 receiver, they were still looking to replace Christian Kirk, and Brown will likely fill that role. Brown is coming off a career season in Baltimore where he caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards, which was the second-highest number on the team. Despite piling up career numbers, Brown seemed to regularly become frustrated while playing in Baltimore's run-first offense.
Less than a month after the season ended, Brown deleted all mentions of the Ravens from his social media pages, which immediately started speculation that he wanted out of Baltimore. At the time, Ravens general manager Eric Decosta made it sound like the team wouldn't be willing trade Brown away anytime soon.
"Marquise was my first pick [as a GM]," DeCosta said, via Sports Illustrated. "I think very highly of Marquise. I think he is a talent. I love his personality, his competitiveness, his passion."
Thanks to the trade, the Ravens had two first-round picks during the NFL Draft on Thursday night at 14th overall and 23rd overall. They used their first pick on Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton and then they pulled off ANOTHER trade. Instead of making a pick at 23rd overall, the Ravens traded the pick to the Bills in exchange for the 25th overall pick and a fourth-round pick (130th overall).
The Ravens then used the 25th overall pick to land Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum. The Ravens were in serious need of some help on the offensive line, especially at center. Baltimore's starter from last season was Bradley Bozeman, who left in free agency to sign with the Panthers.
