Not worried at all, by every single account he's a student of the game playing for the exact team he wanted to go to... it'll click for him one day soon

Mahomes had to play the safety off with his eyes and then float the ball into that void in their zone. Seemed like it was 100% on Worthy being a lost rookie. Worthy does have good hands and you can't teach speed and getting playing time with a HOF like Hopkins should show him the light.

Crazy how fast we’ve gone from thinking we screwed over the Bills (again) and stole Worthy from them to now many wishing we had drafted the guy the Bills drafted. Time will tell who made the right choice here (and it could be both teams added good/useful players).

Nope Worthy will score twice on Buffalo. We own them. Coleman is basically jump ball boy.

It looked to me like if he reaches out and catches that ball with his hands, instead of waiting for it to come into his body, he would have had the room to make the catch and probably score!

A very disappointing outing for Mr. Worthy. I have to admit, like some others that I started to think about Hardman during this game. Yikes

I dont think anyone is saying he IS Hardman but the comparison at this point is there.

Patrick does NOT trust him at all yet. Seems like he gets a shot every game but somehow it doesnt work, then Patrick looks elsewhere the rest of the game.

Like Hardman, he gets a shot, messes it up then they give him the reverse (trick) play. He messed that up too.

Of course No ONE is giving up on the Rook but so far there isnt much to feel like hes going to contribute much this year. He does scare defenses and clear out some zones which is helpful. However I have seen many plays where he himself is breaking open and Patrick wont throw it.

When you look at that list of Rookie WRs and what they have been able to contribute to their teams so far it stings a little bit. Especially with how bad we need him to step up.

No doubt Hopkins will teach him how to be a pro which is fantastic. I feel like he will figure it out as the season goes on.

Also feel like he will be this years "Corn Dog" and catch the SuperBowl winning reception!

This is absolutely not true. Rashee was ascending at a damn near linear pace the whole season. By the time mid season rolled around he was absolutely finding soft spots in the zone and by seasons end was playing like a vet and was absolutely clutch in the playoffs.

Worthy had 0 catches for 0 yards last night and had a walk in touchdown that he absolutely just shit the bed on. The fact that it IS mental is EVEN WORSE.

The sideline route he didn't even get a single foot in bounds! That's atrocious FOR COLLEGE.

Yes I hope he gets it together but IT AINT LOOKING GOOD. So far dude has BEEN ASS.

I'm a bit worried about Worthy, too, I was expecting his name to be coming up more in games, especially with Brown/Rice out, hopefully he can learn some things from a very established vet receiver in DHOP, and even Juju

I think another issue here is, and again there aren't any excuses, but the Chiefs get the best shot from every team they play, we are everyone's Superbowl, the defenses are much more stingy, not great for a rookie to spread their wings. Also, what doesn't help matters is how much drama the WR position has had with the Chiefs the last few seasons.

Can’t believe you people watched Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore and MVS drop passes non-stop and think a mental error of getting your feet down in bounds while catching the ball is somehow worse LMAO

These are fixable problems. Having horrific hands like those 3 other guys isn’t fixable

Maybe he rides to work with Rice. Or should

We didn't draft any of those guys in the first round, and again, that play would be ASS for college.

The NFL is separated by the mental game. I never said it wasn't fixable so that's a strawman. I'm saying, so far, he's not looking great. No one can say that he is because last night was ASSSSS. Straight dirty stank ass.

He's only getting a pass by some due to his draft status. So far, he's been super super mid.

I think Worthy will be fine.

- Rookie mistake with the footwork last night, but let's not lose sight of the fact that he knew where to go (within 6 inches), and was wide ass open.

- I hate reverse/stretch plays to the short side of the field. Even more so when you consider that Worthy will go down on first contact because of his frame, so unless he has space to move and it's blocked perfectly, it's probably not a great play call for him.

- There's clips each week of him being wide ass open downfield.

He'll be fine. The long ball to him at the sideline COULD have been placed a little better, as he had at least 5 yds between the sideline and the defender. As DJN said earlier, he was wide open for quite a while but PM was late with the throw. But yes, he screwed up the catch. Should've been TD or just short.

I'll bet he and PM have it down good by the playoffs, no different than MVS did in his time here. He's 21, he's a rook, it's still not even half through the year. I don't think the staff has quite figured out yet how to use him in the 1-15 yard range.

Just hope people can recognize by now that he is NOT ever going to be a prototypical high volume #1 WR. He is a useful complement in a system like what KC has, with a QB who can throw it 65+ air yards.

Having a volume #1 like Hopkins and/or Kelce will allow him to thrive in his explosive role, just wait and see...

People were just way too high on him during the draft imo. He's lethal quick and it already helps us, but there were plenty of people talking up the route running, the YAC, hands. None of it was bad, but plenty was a work in progress, at best. There's a reason the fastest guy ever at the combine wasn't a top 15 pick and it wasn't just because he was rake thin.

He's not Desean Jackson. He's not Devonta Smith even. I don't think he's played well, but he's going to be a useful piece of the puzzle. At worst, a better MVS

We've already forgotten about Rice :(

Toney's drops were absolutely 100% mental. He didn't have bad hands at all - he just tried to run before he caught it.

Mental errors may manifest themselves in a lot of different ways. Worthy's mental error was no better or worse than many of the ones Toney made last year.

And Toney, like Worthy, did draw attention when he was on the field.

The distinction between the two is that Worthy's just a steadier kid. He has a WAY better head on his shoulders. So you can more easily expect that he's going to get the mental stuff ironed out.

I think this is a bit harsh and extremely premature. He can easily develop into a DeSean Jackson type of player still.

I mean, I think a lot of us said "Hey, if Rice develops as we hope, Hopkins is who he could be..."

Personally I saw Watkins as his prototype. Or Aiyuk. But others saw Hopkins and that's not unreasonable given his frame, play style and body control.

So yeah, if we have the fully formed version of Rice back on the roster in Hopkins, we just lament what the injury means personally for Rice but it's time to move along.

Because this version of Hopkins appears to be better than what we saw from Rice. I wouldn't have believed that for a second but man, D-Hop looks really good out there.

Nah. Safety was already off and square to the QB. He was beat well before Mahomes threw it. And Mahomes most assuredly didn't have to loft that ball, especially had he unloaded it a bit earlier.

That was a MASSIVE window to throw into and Mahomes just held it a bit too long. It happens.

Yeah it could be. If I'm honest I didn't see it in college the way others did, but I won't pretend I watched his every game or that I'm anything but terrible at evaluating players, especially WRs. But that probably explains my lower expectations.

It is very early, and way too early to claim to know what he'll be. Gun to my head I'd say I don't think he'll be that guy, but I'll be very happy to eat crow. In the meantime the speed is still an incredibly useful weapon

Damn that pass was LATE. Not sure what Pat was waiting for.

Looks like Worthy was the second read.

Seems like he’s looking at Hardman lined up tight 1-on-1 with a safety over the top. Not a bad look. Hardman will burn most safeties on a fly in that alignment. Probably what Mahomes was thinking too, but it takes Hardman forever and it finally becomes clear that he isn’t creating separation so he moves on to Worthy.

Looks like the Bucs were doing a lot of post-snap movements.

Pre-snap it looks like #32 will be on Worthy and #23 will be on Hardman. At the snap, #32 bails to the deep third, #23 runs over to the flat and #3 runs with Hardman upfield.

If Worthy was the first read there that one probably goes for a TD, but no way of knowing they’d change coverage like that.

Yeah, without knowing how the play is drawn up I’m going to go with my gut and say that is more on Worthy.

He squeezes the sideline way too much and too early for no apparent reason. They’ve got a high low coverage going on there and neither defender is even within 5 yards of him, no need to help them out by pressing the boundary until you absolutely have to.

He did seem to throttle it down a bit once he realized he’d found a hole in the zone so that’s good. He’s picking things up in real time.

And hopefully that lash footwork is an easy fix for him moving forward. I can live with that mistake in a mostly meaningless week 9 game. Much better to figure it out now than in January.

Worthy has had his fair share of subpar play the past few weeks but he's a rookie and I've seen nothing that looks like it can't be corrected.

Gotta throw some shade at Pat on this too. He needs to start letting it rip to this kid more often because throws are there to be made. Not only that, he was late with this throw by quite a bit. Pat with Tyreek was a different player than he is now. He needs to regain that killer instinct and just let it fly sometimes.

Im not sure it was late. If Worthy stays in bounds and catches at the 2 yard line with momentum taking him into the end zone it would be a perfectly placed pass, giving the DBs no chance of either breaking up the pass or tackling Worthy short of the goal line

Worthy worked the edge too much but a throw on time or a little deeper hits him in the hands, avoids the turn around a feet issues all together. I was saying all game that Pat needs to trust the play design and let more rip. Any time he got to the back of his drop and hesitated for more than a second he wasnt going to throw it with his chest. He had a different belief when throwing to Kelce and Dhop where he wasnt afraid to just rifle it to the spot at the back of the drop.

He has weird trust issues that he didn't have early on.

Like, for whatever reason, Mahomes would sling it to DRob on time every time. Always seemed weird cause like... why him? But Mahomes trusted his guys almost completely early on and rarely made a mistake even when he was going deep or throwing into tight windows.

I'm not sure if he just didn't know what he didn't know or the last two years have him Alex Smithing a little and over thinking it.

I think its the former. He even admitted as much that 2018 was a whirlwind and he didn't really know what he was doing.

Now that he's learned defenses, I think he's simply taking what's being given by the defense, but at the cost of trusting his guys and himself to make a crazy throw.

Now he has to "unlearn" some of what he's learned when reading defenses and just go with his gut and air it out more, finding a healthy balance between the smart and risky.

Idk, this is also the Xavier Worthy thread and I'm literally just a guy.

Worthy is a **** hair from having 7 or 8 TDs. Sure that was his fault on Monday, but Pat has missed him quite a bit

Exactly. Each miss has been really close. Once they get dialed in for timing, the combo will be lethal. It’s not like they are miles apart.

It’s wild that people are calling his a bad pick when he has 5tds in his first 8 games and defenses are forced to know where he is every snap.

he'll be fine

he's capable of developing into a good NFL WR. He's already shown playmaking ability, just gotta iron out the rookie shit.

Worthy has had some issues but they are all stuff that can be fixed. By all accounts he's intelligent and a hard worker. I'm not sure we see a Rice like break out this year but I expect him to polish up most all of the issue going into next year.

He's tied with MHJ and BTJ with 5 touchdowns as rookies. No other rookie has more than 3.

He isn't a volume receiver yet, and may never be in this offense, but I do think we are just seeing the surface right now, and by the end of the year we should see more of what is ceiling could be.

Look,

He just needs time, and I wonder if Mahomes needs time to start trusting again. He will be a major wep soon

I'm not going to join in bashing a rookie wide receiver's footwork in the pouring rain that made him lose a wide open touchdown by less than an inch.

If anything that should show promise.

This is how I feel, at least he caught the ball

I don’t think his problems are mental it’s more he doesn’t generate enough force into the ground to be twitchy as an athlete.

Maybe idk... get him in rhythm more and involve him more on regular plays and get him and Mahomes more chemistry and he won't have mental problems on the deep plays.

Right now all of his touches and target are either a deep ball or some gadget play. He should be great on drags/slants and doing the intermediate crossers but we haven't done that for some reason. If we start that and start actually involving him on regular plays instead of just manufactured touches and decoy plays and occasional deep balls, this offense will be back to scoring 30+ regularly.

I don't think Reid has adjusted to the fact that rookie WRs are capable of doing more these days coming out of college. He still thinks that you have to drip feed them concepts and slowly bring them into the offense when really, most good rookies are ready from day 1 these days. Everything still moves too fast for them and concepts still confuse them at times but looking around the league, rookie WRs and young WRs are far more capable of different things than than Chiefs ask of their young receivers.

Even Rice is far more capable of things than they asked of him this season. When they let Worthy off the leash, this offense will be great.

Worthy is getting praise on the route he ran on that play:

https://www.si.com/nfl/chiefs/news/p...-going-forward

Patrick Mahomes on Xavier Worthy's Sideline Miscue and Expectations Going Forward

Rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy has had an up-and-down start to his first season of NFL action. While Worthy has accounted for five total touchdowns for the Kansas City Chiefs, tied with Kareem Hunt for the most on the team, his role in KC's passing game still hasn't fully come into focus.

On Monday night, Worthy was open deep downfield on the first drive of the game and hauled in a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes as he stepped out of bounds, turning a would-be touchdown into a long incompletion.

During his Wednesday press conference, Mahomes was asked about what kind of progress he's seen from Worthy throughout his rookie year and his view of the missed connection in the first drive. Mahomes started by crediting Worthy for reading the defense and getting open before stepping on the sideline.

"He does a lot of great things," Mahomes said. "On that play, he had more of an in-cut type route, they went to a coverage that they hadn't played a lot with kind of a 2-invert with the safety kind of playing in the middle there, and so I looked down the middle of the field because that's kind of my guy I look to, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Xavier down the sideline making that adjustment. I tried to get him the ball as quickly as possible. Obviously, you're half an inch from scoring a touchdown or whatever it is, maybe even less than that. He'll learn from that, but I thought he did a great job on that play in general of recognizing the coverage and getting to the right spot. And regardless of stats and whatever it is, the threat of him over the top is getting a lot of other guys open. That gets lost in the swing of things, that you don't see the big catches downfield, but I promise you the defenses are respecting his speed, and that's helping getting guys like DeAndre [Hopkins] and Trav [Travis Kelce] open in that medium range."

Could Worthy be in line for a similar mid-season uptick as Rashee Rice enjoyed in his rookie campaign? Last season, Rice caught eight passes for 107 yards in his 11th game as a Chief, setting season-highs in both categories. From that point forward, Rice was clearly KC's No. 1 wide receiver.

"Rashee's season was special last year, and we needed him to step up and have that role in the offense," Mahomes said. "Obviously, we've gotten guys in here that I think take off that pressure of having one guy make all those big plays, but I think you'll continue to see big games from him. You've seen it in certain moments throughout the season, the big plays, you've seen certain plays where he's caught the ball and scored touchdowns, and so I think his role will get bigger and bigger within the offense, but I think we're probably more well-rounded as an offense in general, so maybe not as big of the numbers and stats that Rashee had last year."

The chemistry and timing is even more important for X than some other WRs because you need to get that ball on him right out of his breaks. You can't allow DBs to recover and turn it into a contested catch, he isn't gonna win many of those even though I have been impressed with a couple of high-point snags he has nearly made the past two weeks.

That timing is hard to develop but there's hope that it comes with reps.

So worthy has shown that he is really exceptional at getting open and that he has pretty good hands. Sure he should’ve stayed in bounds on that catch but it’s equally on mahomes who should’ve thrown a better ball. As Mahomes develops better chemistry with worthy, and as worthy continues to improve, they are going to be a lethal combination.

For those that have watched a lot of worthy college tape or saw a lot of his games I would be interested to know what his reputation was for being able to do the tap dance to stay in bounds. I am always amazed at how NFL receivers are often able to do this even when it seems impossible. How was worthy in this phase of the receiver game.

This says a lot about our last couple seasons.

I think he’ll be way better next season.

Just like Tyreek from yr 1 to yr 2.

Rest of story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl...d=BingNewsSerp

This is one of the main reasons I thought Veach traded for Nuk over D Johnson. Hes a tremendous mentor to Worthy and Rice. The fact that Hopkins is also a perfect fit for Patrick makes this trade another Veach masterclass.

I wish we would do more WR screens to him in a effort to get him going

I don’t think Reid will use Worthy much in the short game until the playoffs. Worthy has caught a few critical 3rd down conversions on plays that look unstoppable. Like those quick outs to the flat Tyreek used to run. Guaranteed 4-5 yards. They’ll experiment once or twice and then save it. Meanwhile he’s running lots of deep routes and learning the NFL game.

Glad to hear Embree is getting in on the coaching and mentoring action. Wouldn't want him to be left out, now, would we?

Bottom line, the dude can get open, catch the ball, track a deep pass, and is fast as hell. He’s eight games into his rookie season. I’m not worried at all about him, nor will I nitpick stuff this early. I think he’s going to turn into a fine player.

Marvin Harrison Jr 445 yds 5 TD
Malik Nabers. 557 3 TD
Rome Odunze. 391 yds 1 TD
Brian Thomas Jr. 595 yds 5 TD
Xavier Worthy. 235 yds 3 TD
Ricky Pearsall. Was shot
Xavier Legette. 244 yds 4 TD
Keon Coleman. 417 yds 3 TD
Ladd McConkey. 440 yds 4 TD

Did we really manage to draft the worst one?

No, the Chiefs aren't leaning on a rookie WR because they don't need to. 8-0.

Plus he wasn't shot, and I prefer WRs who aren't shot.

They've tried. He had his shot for weeks. Had to trade for a WR.

Yes they had to trade for a WR, because they were down to Worthy, Watson, and practice squad guys at wideouts due to injuries. DeSean Jackson is still a reasonable comp for Worthy and that would be just fine.

Had his shot at what, being WR1?

The only guys on your list that are close to putting up WR1 numbers so far are Nabers and BTJ...barely.

Worthy was expected to be WR3 or WR4.

I'm not giving up on him. Tools are there but it's certainly reasonable...as a fan...to be a little disappointed with the production thus far.

I think some of that is his usage, in addition to being a rookie.

Last year Rice started out hot, then faded. 361 yards and 3 TDs in the last 8 games. Hopefully Worthy will have the complete opposite of Rice's rookie season.

He has 5 TDs, not 3, idiot.

LMAO @ Was shot.

And I'm guessing those players aren't used as the next gen Mecole Hardman do that would explain why they are producing more than Worthy.

Sir I was listing receiving touchdowns. I'm really sorry.

First of all, this is wrong. Also, it would be really interesting to add targets and % of game time played.

I would imagine Worth is bottom of the lift in % of game time played when healthy with joint most touch downs. (apart from the one who got shot)

If that's drafting the worst one, then damn

Has everyone forgotten that Tyreek started off as more of a Gadget player/return man his first couple seasons before he developed.

Give the kid time.

Which part is wrong?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id...in-harrison-jr
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id...99/rome-odunze
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id...8/malik-nabers
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id...rian-thomas-jr
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/stat.../xavier-worthy
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id.../ladd-mcconkey
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id...8/keon-coleman

The book on Worthy isn’t finished yet, but there is a difference. Tyreek was a gadget guy primarily in his first season. By his second season, he went for 1,200 yards at 16 YPR. He legitimately made Alex Smith the best deep passer in the league in 2017.

Simply watching them yields different results too. It was clear as day that Tyreek was a star in the making even in that rookie year with a neutered role.

This. Reid is too loyal.

Mahomes has missed Worthy on many plays this year so it’s really unfair to pin anything solely on Worthy.

Yeah he’s had a slump the last few games, but he has proven without a shadow of a doubt that he knows how to get open, track the ball and catch it.

Tom Brady made a good point this week. Hopkins came in a dominated his first real game bc he’s a veteran that understands spacing, route concepts, how to help the QB and how to run the route to the precise directive which most rookies don’t get.

It takes time but he’s a good complimentary WR right now. Still think he’s DeSean Jackson

Why can they never connect outside of manufactured plays? We really need to work Worthy in the short game more and let him and Patrick get some chemistry together cause right now it's ugly. It's too feast or famine right now and since they can't connect on the deep balls, it's almost all famine.

If you want to blame anyone this week, blame Mahomes. He had Worthy on the deep shot and overthrew him instead of leading him inbounds.

Worthy did drop a pass on a short out as well. I'm not upset with him, but I do think Andy needs to dial his targets back a tad. He's just not catching the ball with any consistency, long or short.

Yeah I agree. I'm not blaming just Worthy. It's on both of them and the coaches to put him in better positions for success. Mahomes HAS to get better at throwing deep and the coaches need to get Worthy more involved.

Hoo boy. Still struggling to develop chemistry with Mahomes and Suamataia looking completely hopeless. 2024 draft class is looking pretty brutal at this point.

No. It's the regular season and we've got 9 games already stacked up. Who the hell cares?

It's championship or bust, so just get in the damn playoffs. We can't get any better in that department, so it's time to start developing some chemistry between him and Mahomes.

Keep him involved. It might just really pay off if/when we REALLY need it

Worthy will be fine.

Kingsley... Idk.

He completely air mailed 2 TDs...pretty sure the ankle is bothering him.

Can’t believe how much Mahomes has missed this kid this season.

He straight up smoked that white Iowa corner down the sideline. Had 3 steps on his ass and Mahomes made the worst deep pass I’ve ever seen him make.

That’s an easy TD and Mahomes just blanked it

Overthrew him in the 49ers game also on a potential 75 yard TD. Last week Mahomes was a little late on his throw but Worthy was totally lost and stepped out of bounds on the opening drive. Chemistry is just off right now. We've seen that issue before with Mahomes and Hardman/Moore. Let's hope it gets fixed.

They're rookies, dude.

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