The expectations I’ve had for Xavier Worthy to be a sizeable contributor to the 2024 Chiefs offense have grown at basically every turn. They’ve gone from “he probably won’t be a major factor,” to “he’ll have an important but pretty niche role,” to “there’s a chance they feature him a little more than what we’re used to in an Andy Reid offense as a rookie,” to… Well, at this point I’d be surprised if he wasn’t a major part of the offense, both before and after Hollywood Brown returns from injury.
On Saturday against the Lions, Worthy took the hype train and cranked it up to “full speed ahead,” gaining 73 yards on 4 total touches (3 catches, one reverse) and scoring his first NFL touchdown (albeit a preseason touchdown).
The thing is, when you look at his usage/role on film, as well as his impact when he didn’t get the ball… that stat line actually underestimates what he added to the Chiefs offense. You didn’t misread that. He was actually more important than 73 yards and a TD in less than a full half of play. That’s a big deal, and we need to work through why it’s true.
There’s not a player I’ve written about more this offseason than Chiefs rookie WR Xavier Worthy. I wrote about his college film prior to the draft as part of the “know your draft crush” series. I wrote about how (in college) he was more than just fast. I wrote about him as one of the 11 players I was watching when the pads came on in training camp. I wrote about his release at the line vs press on a single rep. I wrote about him getting bodied shortly thereafter in a single rep. He featured strongly when I wrote about the Chiefs’ clear intention to bring the deep ball back in 2024.
In short, I’ve written about Worthy a TON here. But all of it is mostly theoretical, trying to project his skillset into the Chiefs’ offense with the pieces they have in place. After Saturday, we actually have our first look as to exactly how Andy Reid might deploy him, where he can win, and how he can affect the field with his gravity (a concept I’ve talked about here before, we’ll circle back to that). And almost all of the news we got was good news.
Worthy made a big play with (and against) the 1st team, and of course had a touchdown with (and against) the 2nd team. But as is often the case in the preseason, it’s not the RESULT of the plays that matters as much as the HOW the play occurred. Skillset and usage are king. And it’s both his skillset and usage that has me struggling to control my optimism about Worthy’s ability to contribute, as well as his ability to affect plays even when he’s not getting the ball.
Let’s dive into the all 22 from Saturday, Worthy’s usage/skillset, and why it’s a good time to be a Chiefs fan.
Let’s start with the first drive of the game and the play clip you saw above. The Chiefs were facing 3rd and 11 and motioned Worthy between Rice in the slot and the tackle (a great way to get him a free release at he line of scrimmage). Worthy may have false-started (though when you freeze it and go frame by frame, he appears to move his feet forward EXACTLY the moment the ball is snapped), but the route running he shows is something that makes him so dangerous in the Chiefs’ offense.
Worthy’s reputation out of college was that of a speedster, for obvious reasons. But he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his ability to work fakes into his routes to buy space as he moves down the field. He’s not just sprinting, he has nuance in his movement. And it’s that nuance that buys him so much space here against the deep safety. Go back up and re-watch the route. Specifically, look at what he does to gain separation that has nothing to do with his impressive acceleration.
Worthy has 3 defenders to think about here. One trailing him up the seam, one to the outside in zone (though not going deep from all appearances), and one deep safety rotating back.
Here’s where nuance matters in deep route running way more than people realize. It’s about leverage and convincing defenders (even for a second) that you’re going somewhere you’re not. Worthy takes a step inside while throwing his head that way to fake a route taking him deep across the field. This fake is subtle, but it’s wildly important in buying him separation from all three defenders. The defender following him up the seam keeps that inside leverage. The defender to the outside stays rooted to his spot and doesn’t get depth, thinking that Worthy is cutting inside. And the deep safety is frozen in place, unable to start closing on the sideline for fear of getting his momentum going the wrong way.
But of course, Worthy isn’t running a crosser. He’s going to the corner. And by the time he gets three steps after the fake he’s got all the separation he could possibly ask for and a world of space for Mahomes to drop the ball (as the defenders have been manipulated away from where he wants to go).
You can see at the catch point that Worthy and Mahomes aren’t QUITE on the same page, as Worthy flattens it a bit more than Mahomes anticipates. But Worthy, unlike some previous deep threats in Kansas City, is able to adjust his trajectory as the ball is in the air while maintaining speed and correct his course. He stretches out for the catch and it’s a big gain (if he and Mahomes correct that slight difference in how much to flatten the route that could be six next time).
The speed gets the headlines, but it’s route nuance that creates the opportunity for Worthy to separate like this. And it’s a big play on third down that keeps a drive alive, while being the sort of route no one on the Chiefs could run last season (and punishing the defense for rotating to single-high). It’s also the thing that separates him from pure speedsters. Worthy can run a full route tree, and he does it well.
The very next play on that drive, Worthy showed off how the threat of his speed and route running ability can affect defenders. But that’ll be the final point we cover, so we’ll circle back to it when we talk about gravity. First, let’s keep talking about nuance in routes. Because Worthy’s touchdown showed the same ability to set up defenders and THEN weaponize his speed (having both is the difference between a fast dude and a legit WR).
Look at the hesitation/stutter Worthy utilizes here.
Try not to get distracted by his absolute frightening acceleration after the stutter for a moment. The reason the defender is left behind isn’t just “Worthy fast.” It’s because Worthy does a terrific job setting up the defender to fail. He closes the distance a bit and then hesitates, causing the defender to stop his feet as he tries to figure out which way he’ll need to drive (assuming Worthy is cutting inside or outside but staying intermediate). The problem for the defender is that Worthy is able to go from hesitation to top speed in just a few steps, and he explodes by for a WIDE open touchdown.
Once again, you see Worthy’s route-running chops utilizing his natural gifts in a way that creates separation AND punishes the defense for not having safety help over the top. There’s some sort of miscommunication here (the deep safety to that side of the field drives down immediately), but the short story is that defenses can’t afford to leave guys alone against Worthy in space. Chances are he’ll run right by them utilizing his combination of savvy and freakish acceleration, because if they’re flat-footed for even a moment it’s over.
Further, it’s worth noting Worthy showed some route running savvy in other moments as well. Watch him here against zone on a play where the throw ultimately goes to Rice (who had more room to operate with a legitimate threat playing next to him).
The thing to note here is how Worthy doesn’t just stick to his top speed. Here, with Detroit playing a zone look, notice how he recognizes the coverage and rather than accelerating deep he gears back and looks for the ball as he enters into an open zone between the underneath CB and the deep safety. That may seem like nothing, but it’s a big deal. It’s demonstrative of a player who understands the route combinations vs the defense, and is correctly reading DURING THE ROUTE when he ought to be slowing down and looking for the ball.
We talk all the time about receivers being smart against zone and knowing how to make sight adjustments. This isn’t a full-fledged sight adjustment (at least, I don’t think it is), but it’s a similar concept in that you’re reading the defense as you run and altering your pace in order to present a target in the soft spot of the zone. Worthy doing this, even on a single snap, in his first extended action as a rookie is highly encouraging and gives one hope that the praise being heaped on his intelligence by Mahomes and Reid isn’t empty (he showed this ability in college, but one never knows how things will translate).
Another thing that makes me optimistic about Worthy’s intelligence and ability to digest Reid’s playbook early is that their usage of him didn’t appear limited at all. They had Worthy line up off the tackle, in the slot, on the boundary, on and off the line, as part of trips, in stacked alignments, and both with and without motion. He played basically everywhere you could think of and ran a wide variety of routes. That set him apart even from Rashee Rice as a rookie, as Rice’s role was generally limited to a certain set of the route tree. Worthy ran more variety of intermediate and deep routes in one preseason game than Rice did through 8 weeks last year.
If Reid can indeed trust Worthy in that large a role, it makes “protecting” him against press coverage (the biggest concern people have about his game at the pro level given his small stature) exponentially easier. While it’s worth noting that true press man is tough against a guy as fast as Worthy given the risk of losing down the field (and teams don’t play true press nearly as often as some fans think in man or zone), it’s also worth noting that Andy Reid is terrific at punishing teams for man looks and attempted press by utilizing stacked formations (which Worthy was a part of several times) OR route combinations designed to set picks and test man coverage rules.
One such play came early and Detroit covered it well, but you can see the intention. Watch how Rice’s route is designed to buy Worthy space against man coverage, even though it’s not successful here.
At the snap, Rice drives forward into his defender and in front of Worthy. In the meantime, Worthy releases to the outside around Rice. The basic idea here is that in a man coverage situation Rice serves as a “pick” for Worthy. It’s a very basic route combination that Reid utilizes frequently. Here, the defender is playing well off Worthy and, because of that, the pick doesn’t quite reach him.
But the general idea is worth noting here. If the defender had been playing closer to the line of scrimmage, you can see how Rice’s pick would have prevented him from getting hands on Worthy and slowed him down (giving Worthy natural separation). Route combinations like this punish press man or even man that’s close to the line of scrimmage. And it’s always a threat in Reid’s offense. The natural counter to this type of pick is to play off man. But as we’ve seen in other clips, playing off man against Worthy is a great way to get torched.
And so defensive coordinators are left with a pair of less-than-desirable options. Do they dial up an aggressive look at the line knowing there’s a chance Reid has called a pick play that will punish it (and that’s just one of many combos Reid runs to exploit man coverage)? Do they play off the line knowing that Worthy is really tough to deal with if he gets a free release? Basically, it’s a guessing game. Above, they guessed correctly that his route wouldn’t attack an off defender. On other snaps (like his pair of deep ball catches) they guessed incorrectly and he chewed up an off defender.
In other words, Worthy (in his second preseason action) was already helping create problems for the defense in their coverages. That’s huge news. And it helped him affect the game even when he wasn’t the target. Remember I said we’d talk about gravity at some point? Well, that point is now. Watch Worthy and Watson (bottom of the screen) in the play immediately following the long 3rd down conversion on the first drive.
Here, the Lions are in zone coverage. Worthy is lined up stacked behind Watson (another way of dealing with the press looks that people are worried about, though in this case Detroit is not pressing). And his route is being utilized to clear space in the intermediate portion of the field.
Remember when I wrote about the gravity of Travis Kelce, and how defenses bend around him in an effort to try and contain him? The same basic principle applies to legitimate deep threats. It’s one of the reasons MVS was brought on board in 2022 (and he did it fairly well that year). The idea is that a player who legitimately frightens teams down the field pulls coverage that way and opens up the intermediate and shallow portions of the field, because teams can’t afford to give up big plays (that’s how you lose games).
Look at what Worthy’s presence does to the defense here. Again, they run a pretty basic zone look here that IN THEORY should protect the defense over the top. The problem is that Worthy’s speed terrifies them at multiple levels of the field. Watch what his gravity does in back to back screenshots.
We’re really looking at just three routes here. Worthy and Watson on the right side of the formation, Kelce coming in off the line from the left side. Note that you’ve got plenty of bodies there (in theory) to cover three routes. But watch what happens with multiple defenders when a deep threat like Worthy spooks them (remember, he had JUST beaten them down the field the previous play). You can start to see just how much space exists on the field and how hard it is to cover it all.
Three different defenders are getting dragged down the field by Worthy’s gravity. First, the seam defender has to follow Worthy as the safeties get depth, otherwise Mahomes will be able to throw to the middle of the field (that’s the danger with two deep safeties, the seam throws. Middle field open, and all that). In the meantime, both safeties have to get depth because there’s no way that seam defender is going to be able to carry Worthy ALL the way down the field.
And those three defenders following Worthy creates a world of space underneath for Kelce and Watson to work in. Mahomes finds Watson for a chunk play, and the Chiefs are cooking with gas.
Worthy is a terrific complement for Kelce and Rice because they do their best work shallow and intermediate, while his natural ability to stretch the field and make defenses pay in intermediate and deep zones is going to naturally create space for them in those areas. Think of opposing defenses as accordions. Last year, they could stay squeezed together on short routes, knowing their chances of paying for it with a big play were limited (even intermediate shots were sparse). This year, they’re forced to choose between squeezing and stretching, and either choice provides for playmakers that can hurt them. So back and forth they go. And Reid knows how to play that accordion as well as anyone.
Keep in mind that this is without Hollywood Brown, who adds a three-level threat of his own and appears to be the planned WR1 in this year’s offense. But even with Brown out, Worthy looks like he may be ready to slide into a larger role than even I (an eternal optimist) thought he would as a rookie. In fact, he already did it, albeit in a preseason game.
I expect Worthy to have his fair share of rookie struggles. It would be foolish not to. But for him to have as varied a role as he did Saturday is a hugely positive sign for his development, and it’s impossible to paint it any other way. We’ll see what happens when the snaps get real in a couple of weeks, but Worthy’s combination of high-level traits, route running, and ability to line up all over the field and execute various combinations is as promising as it gets at this stage, affecting every snap he’s out there whether he gets the ball or not.
I cannot wait for the real football to start.