Although the Kansas City Chiefs lost their final preseason game against the Chicago Bears 29-27, the first-team offense showed encouraging signs. After an offseason spent promising a return of exciting pass plays, the highlight of the evening was a 58-yard bomb from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to wideout Tyquan Thornton.
Wide receiver Xavier Worthy thinks his teammates came into the matchup with the right frame of mind.
“I think we came out with a lot of excitement,” he recalled before Tuesday’s practice. “I feel like that’s just kind of been the morale of the group: everybody came out juiced and ready. I feel like we didn’t want to come out. We were having so much fun, I feel like that’s just kind of our core right now. Like our coach says all the time: ‘Let your personality show.’ I feel like we’re letting that happen.”
Worthy was not surprised to see the former second-round pick for the New England Patriots connect for a big, dynamic play with the league’s best quarterback.
“That’s something we were doing all camp,” Worthy explained. “That’s what we’ve worked on. That didn’t surprise me that it happened in the game. Tyquan’s been catching those all camp; he’s really been showing up. So it just shows the work we’ve been putting in.”
Worthy famously set a record-breaking 4.21-second time in the 40-yard dash at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine — while Thornton’s 4.28-second performance from 2022 is tied for the tenth-fastest run in the event’s history. Still, Worthy feels the wide receiver room is so stacked that even third-year wideout Rashee Rice — who turned in a 40 time of just 4.51 in 2023 — could have made the play.
“I feel like anybody could do that in the room right now,” he boasted. “Rashee could go do that. That just shows the camaraderie — and what we’ve got going on in the room. Anybody could go make a play at any moment, so [defenses] have to respect everybody on the field.”
While the Chiefs’ offense has sometimes been frustrating to watch during the last two seasons, Worthy believes the team’s deep group of wideouts — also featuring veteran Hollywood Brown — will combine with tight end Travis Kelce to return Kansas City’s offense to its previous place among the league’s most-feared units.
“I feel like it could open a lot of things up,” he predicted. “We’ve got Trav running all the underneath routes — whatever he needs to run — and we’ve got guys like me, Hollywood, Rashee and Tyquan to take the top off. We’ve got the intermediate game. You have to play the whole field with all of us on the field.”
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Worthy also believes the Chiefs are ready to play with an edge following their embarrassing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. Although defensive tackle Chris Jones does not play on his side of the ball, Worthy shared the advice given by the team’s longest tenured defender.
“I feel things didn’t end like we wanted to last year,” Worthy admitted, “and I feel like Chris said it well in the locker room: ‘How are you going to get better? How are you going to adapt and thrive off the situation? Are you going to come back better — or are you going to come back still soggy and mad that you lost?’
“So I feel like a lot of guys in the offseason came back with a chip on their shoulder, more conditioned and ready to work.”
When the Chiefs take the field for their Week 1 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers in Saõ Paulo, Brazil, it may mark a milestone for them. For two offseasons, Kansas City has dreamed of having an offense built around Worthy, Rice and Brown. After the latter two missed much of 2024 with injuries, 2025’s season opener may mark the first time the trio has appeared together in the regular season.
Worthy thinks Friday’s exhibition was a preview of what they could do together.
“I feel like [you’ll see] a lot of what you saw this past weekend,” he declared. “Guys out there having fun — and making plays.”
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