How the Chiefs have expanded Xavier Worthy’s role

In Kansas City’s win over Las Vegas, we could see how the rookie wide receiver is developing — and improving.

In 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs’ rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice played a significant role in their passing attack. Compared to the rest of the position group, the second-round rookie had almost instantly become the team’s most talented wideout — which forced Kansas City to accelerate his development. While there were growing pains at the beginning, the Chiefs were able to identify Rice’s best role (and get him enough up to speed) so that the offense could peak as the team closed in on its second straight Super Bowl win.

Coming into 2024, Kansas City sought to improve the group’s overall talent level by adding free-agent veteran Hollywood Brown and using its first-round pick on speedy Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy. The team clearly intended to rely on Brown and Rice as its primary wideouts, allowing them time to develop Worthy normally.

But with Brown and Rice now lost for most (if not all) of the season due to injuries — and with JuJu Smith-Schuster out for an unknown period with a hamstring injury — the team must return to what it did a year ago. While recently acquired veteran wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will soon be the team’s most reliable receiver, the Chiefs will still have to rely heavily on their new rookie.

So we’ve been watching Worthy’s role expand — and I thought Sunday was the most complete game he’s played.

Let’s consider how he‘s being used — and how he’s improving.

Isolating on the back side

Kansas City has used Worthy in many ways to find where he wins the most. On Sunday, we saw more of him alone on the back side of formations.

When he’s is on the front side, defenses can more easily shift their coverages to him, keeping him from getting as much airspace. On the back side, however, teams must decide how to defend Worthy. If he’s covered one-on-one, he can beat almost any cornerback with his speed. But if they double him to take away that speed, that leaves one fewer defender on the front side.

While this third-and-2 play gains just seven yards, it results in a new set of downs. But we can see how his role could expand; Worthy could use double moves to get downfield from this look. As long as defenses give him these kinds of cushions, he can get easy completions to move the chains — and break tackles for bigger gains.

Learning to find holes in zones

Worthy has shown growth in finding space in zone coverage. As the season began, his routes led him away from coverages — but as he has become more comfortable running routes at this level, he’s been showing more ability there.

Worthy did the same thing in college. As he continues to recognize coverages (and learn how to adjust to them), it’s an opportunity for Worthy to find holes against defenders who are afraid of his speed.

Winning off the line of scrimmage

Worthy has sometimes struggled to beat jams off the line of scrimmage — but on Sunday, he displayed growth.

On this play, Las Vegas are in Tampa 2. The cornerback over Worthy is giving him a hard jam to disrupt his release and timing. This allows the safety to get over the top, where he can cap any vertical route. Worthy recognizes the cornerback lunging at him. He moves backward, forcing the cornerback to lean — and then uses his burst and acceleration to avoid any contact.

While Worthy isn’t targeted on this play, it’s good to see him developing more ways to beat a jam.

Running deep out routes

This was my favorite Worthy route against the Raiders, who are in Cover 1 with their cornerbacks in off-coverage. Worthy gets a free release because the cornerback is threatened by his speed. He presses the corner vertically before snapping it off to a deep out, creating separation and a huge throwing window.

One of Worthy’s most underrated attributes is his ability to start and stop quickly; he’s a fluid route runner who doesn’t waste a lot of motion. When that is combined with his incredible speed, defenders give him large cushions that create easy targets.

Using his horizontal speed

Worthy was brought in to stretch the field. That also extends to his horizontal speed. When a cornerback has to chase him across the field, they almost have no chance of staying with him. At Texas, his best routes were deep crossers — on Sunday, we finally saw one connect.

I love how Worthy keeps his route flat on this play — rather than drifting — which gives quarterback Patrick Mahomes an adequate throwing window to throw the ball downfield.

Running routes from the backfield

With Hopkins now in the fold, his contested-catch ability gives Kansas City some additional red-zone options.

I would love to see this package be expanded. Hopkins and Kelce get all the attention, allowing Worthy to align in the backfield, where he can run angle or option routes to get the ball to him underneath.

We saw how successful Kadarius Toney was in these packages — and while Worthy doesn’t have Toney’s elusiveness, he’s a much better route runner. I think there’s more that head coach Andy Reid could do here.

The bottom line

While Worthy hasn’t necessarily had big stat lines in his games, his impact has been felt. While he and Mahomes haven’t fully honed their chemistry, he’s doing his job well — and continuing to improve.

I still have concerns about the rookie. He’s bad at the catch point and struggles to break tackles — which is where his lack of weight shows up — and with the ball in his hands, he’s not necessarily elusive.

Still, everything else has looked good. He’s developing releases to beat man coverage and is improving as a route runner. Meanwhile, Kansas City is expanding the routes he runs, which helps get him the ball more often.

Hopkins’s presence will make Worthy’s job easier. As his rookie season continues, I hope finishes strong — just like Rice did in 2023.