Who Should I Start? Marquise Brown or Calvin Austin III

Wednesday, June 18, 2:23 PM

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquise Brown said he feels 100% healthy entering the 2025 season following an injury-riddled campaign in 2024. The former first-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens suffered a significant shoulder injury last preseason and did not appear in a game until the Week 16 win over the Houston Texans. While his opportunities to show what he can do in Kansas City were limited, he did draw at least five targets in four of his five games, including the postseason. However, he did not share the field with Rashee Rice, who looked like he would be the team's target hog before suffering an early-season knee injury that held him out of the remainder of the year. Brown has missed at least two games in four of his six NFL campaigns, but he remains an intriguing late-round fantasy option in Patrick Mahomes' passing offense. He's unlikely to be a weekly, reliable producer, but he's a fine best-ball dart throw. The Oklahoma product has tallied 322 receptions for 3,735 yards and 28 touchdowns in 74 career games.

Wednesday, June 11, 5:17 PM

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni likes Calvin Austin III to be the team's No. 2 wideout behind DK Metcalf in 2025 after George Pickens was traded to the Dallas Cowboys this offseason. Azzanni said that Austin is being overlooked and that he is a "legit NFL receiver" that "gets separation all over the field." Roman Wilson and others will be working as a committee behind Metcalf and Austin to open the 2025 regular season. Austin, a former fourth-rounder (138th overall) in 2022 out of Memphis, caught 36 of his 58 targets for 548 yards and four touchdowns in 17 regular-season games (eight starts) in his second season in the NFL last year. He is definitely going to have a bigger role in 2025, but in what is expected to be a run-heavy offense with quarterback Aaron Rodgers likely in the last season of his career, we'd expect Austin to struggle for volume on a week-to-week basis.