Without Marquise "Hollywood" Brown and Rashee Rice for all or most of the 2024-25 season, the Kansas City Chiefs have needed someone else to step up in their absence. Veteran DeAndre Hopkins is among those providing a solution, but rookie Xavier Worthy is also improving as the month of December rolls on.
In fact, the 28th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft is in the middle of the most consistent stretch of his debut campaign. It directly follows a rough two-game span against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (negative all-purpose yardage and no receptions) and Denver Broncos (one catch on four targets for just 11 yards). Over the last four weeks, Worthy is looking more like the player Kansas City hoped it was getting.
According to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, that in-season jump began in Week 11's loss to the Buffalo Bills. He believes Worthy's better play stems from a higher level of confidence in his ability within the offense.
“He’s getting better and better," Mahomes said. "I think he’s just playing with such more confidence. I think it really started in Buffalo. It’s just kind of kept getting bigger and bigger as we kind of went throughout the rest of this year, I think, as I train those deep passes and really show off his skill doing that. He’s getting open, so just trying to hit him on some of those, but he’s showing his versatility and how he’s able to work underneath, catch the ball, get yards after the catch and stuff like that. I think he’s going to be continuing to get better and better, which is going to help us going into the postseason.”
Including the Bills outing, Worthy has logged at least five targets with four or more receptions and no less than 41 yards in the aforementioned four-game stretch. In those games, he's made up a whopping 47% of his catches on the year and 45% of his receiving yardage. That's accompanied by 31% of his rushing production as well. The rookie is making the most of his opportunities even while continuing to establish chemistry with Mahomes on deep passes.
In addition to his usual early-game and early-down involvement, Worthy is now beginning to make a difference when it matters the most. Sunday night's victory over the Los Angeles Chargers contained a pair of critical examples: him converting on a pair of attempts on third down. In the first half, Mahomes went to him on a third-and-7 that picked up 11 yards and kept the club's only touchdown drive alive. Worthy's penultimate target, one of the biggest plays of the game, was a third-and-10 from the 40-yard line. The Texas product got 14 yards, which was enough to preserve what wound up being the final possession of the evening.
Early last month, the Chiefs alluded to Worthy being able to experience a rookie-year leap similar to Rice. While that insane ascension doesn't seem to be in the cards, it might not be required in order to keep winning. In the four weeks that coincided with Worthy's breakout, Kansas City is 10th in EPA/play and dropback EPA on offense. Should Steve Spagnuolo's defense stabilize and Brown ever return to the lineup, the reigning Super Bowl winners will once again be a tough out.
Even if not, it's a good thing that the franchise's prized possession from the draft is getting closer to finding a high-end role on offense.
