Following the draft-night trade that sent him to the Arizona Cardinals, former Ravens wide receiver Marquise "Hollywood" Brown explained the reasoning behind his trade request.
During an interview on Sirius' 'I Am Athlete', Brown said he wanted to play in a different offensive system, and that his discontent began during his second NFL season.
"I asked them for a trade after the season," Brown said. "It was just my happiness."
Brown said close friend Lamar Jackson was well aware of the situation. Being traded to Arizona will reunite Brown with quarterback Kyler Murray, Brown's college teammate at Oklahoma.
"I talked to Lamar about it after my second year," Brown said. "Then after my third year, leading up to the end of the season, he wasn't playing. I let him know again like, 'Bro, I can't do it.'
"It's not really on Lamar. I love Lamar. It was just, the system wasn't for me. I love all my teammates. I love the guys. But, it was just something I had to think about for myself. The Ravens, we both handled it the right way. I didn't go out and make anything public. I just kept it in house, kept working. It all worked out."
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta said Thursday night that he traded Brown with mixed emotions. He was DeCosta's first draft pick after taking over as GM in 2019, and Brown was coming off his best season with 91 catches for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns. But in exchange for Brown, the Ravens acquired the 23rd pick in the draft, then traded back to No. 25 to select former Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.
"Marquise was my first pick, and one of my favorite guys on the team," DeCosta said. "But Marquise came to me after the season and requested that he be traded and was not happy and wanted to play elsewhere. Again, it was something that I anguished over for a long time. He would tell you, I think, that he and I had many conversations throughout the spring.
"You know … I always say the club has to win, and this was a situation where it was going to be impossible for the club to truly win, but we do what we think is best for the player. We try to accommodate players when we can. I'm sensitive to that, so we did it. I think he would say that he feels happy, which is good, and we made the best of the situation as a club. We used that pick wisely, I think. We got a good trade, I think, and we got an excellent player. I hope when we look back at this, we'll see that. It was a tough situation. I hope for the best for 'Hollywood', I really do. I hope he's in the Pro Bowl, but I also think that this guy [Tyler Linderbaum] that we drafted is also going to be in Pro Bowls, too. So, that will be a heck of a thing."
