After his head-turning debut, Kansas City Chiefs first-round wide receiver Xavier Worthy has put together a couple of quieter performances where he’s made less of an impact — which is to be expected for most rookies.
Having said that, while addressing the media on September 23, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid did clear up a little bit of false information involving Worthy that has been circulating the KC community.
Earlier in the presser, Reid hinted at errant routes by receivers, which sparked a question about the rookie.
“You kind of referenced the stopped route that Xavier had on that last drive near the end zone,” Chiefs Digest beat writer Matt Derrick began, asking: “How much of that is still just — you’ve got a lot of young guys in that receiver room that Patrick [Mahomes is] still getting to learn and getting to know and building chemistry with, that you have the little miscommunications like that?”
With a smile, Reid quickly responded: “Yeah, that actually wasn’t [Worthy]. That was his compadre [that] ran the wrong route.”
“[Worthy] stopped so that he didn’t run into him,” the Chiefs HC clarified. “[Mahomes] checked to a play there and the communication got a little mixed up… one of the routes wasn’t the right route.”
Although Reid was not willing to out the receiver that made the mistake, he did defend Worthy’s innocence on this specific KC miscue. And this wasn’t just something Derrick got wrong.
Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy Called 1 of 3 Biggest ‘Losers’ From Week 3
Arrowhead Pride analyst Matt Stagner also referenced the supposed mistaken route by Worthy while naming him one of the Chiefs’ biggest “losers” from Week 3.
“The first-round pick was riding high after two big plays for touchdowns during Week 1. But since then, Worthy has had four catches for 34 yards on eight targets — and hasn’t quite been able to break free on designed runs,” Stagner wrote.
Continuing: “There were a couple of instances where he might not have been in the right spot on his routes, creating bad results. Struggles like these are quite normal for rookies — but especially when Kansas City is missing one of its top receivers, we’d like to see Worthy doing more with his opportunities.”
Without Hollywood Brown in the lineup, the Chiefs will rely on Worthy to step up throughout the year, but there are going to be growing pains.
The former Texas Longhorns speedster is a big play threat at this stage of his career, not necessarily a four-down menace like Rashee Rice or Travis Kelce — meaning he’ll have his moments, but they most likely won’t come as consistently as the other two KC pass-catchers.
Still, the threat of Worthy taking any given target or hand-off for a touchdown is legit, and that cannot be understated. The rookie makes Kansas City much harder to contain, and he should get better and better as time goes on.
Andy Reid Calms Reporters While Discussing Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy: ‘He’ll Have Other Games Where He Has More Grabs’
Earlier in the Monday press conference, Reid spoke more about Worthy’s “evolution” as an NFL wide receiver.
“Yeah, he’s doing a great job with [the nuances of the Chiefs offense],” Reid told a reporter. “I pulled off on a couple of the routes with some of the things [the Atlanta Falcons] were doing but he had a number of routes there in the first 15 [minutes].”
After reiterating that Kansas City “chose to pull off” Worthy in this particular game more so due to what the Atlanta defense was giving them, Big Red added that Worthy is “doing a nice job” with everything so far.
“He’ll have other games here where he has more grabs,” the Chiefs head coach concluded confidently. Pointing to Worthy’s early-season contributions in the “quick game” as evidence.
