The Kansas City Chiefs have had a lot of mysterious failures this season, and the declining production of receiver Xavier Worthy is one of the more puzzling ones. In many ways Worthy has been one of the keys to the Chiefs offense—when he’s taking the top off secondaries and catching plenty of deep balls while doing that, the offense hums. When he’s not, struggles ensue across the board.
So what happened, exactly, to Worthy's production? Nora Prionciotti of The Ringer offered some intriguing thoughts in her version of “what’s next for the Chiefs,” and they’re well worth exploring.
Start with Worthy’s numbers. He’s caught just 40 passes so for for 491 yards and one touchdown, and that last number especially sticks out. Worthy was supposed to help make the Chiefs offense more explosive, but Princiotti cited him as the “poster child” for how the receiving corps has let quarterback Patrick Mahomes down this year.
PFF has Worthy being responsible for just a single drop this year, but the Chiefs have a total of 23, which is seventh in the league, and there was that big one in Dallas that didn't make the list. Princiotti also raised some questions about his usage that have been cited by others, specifically the fact that Worthy was often asked to run complex routes over the middle of the field, which doesn’t fit his slight physical build or experience level of the 22-year old Worthy.
If you’re sensing a Matt Nagy fail here, you could be right about the offensive coordinator. Worthy’s basic role is to be a deep threat, and running those kinds of routes helped opponents take the speedy receiver out of the game without having to devote any extra coverage resources to Worthy.
Worthy’s health is also a possible issue here. We all know about that early-season collision between the receiver and tight end Travis Kelce that dislocated Worthy’s shoulder, but what we don’t know about is Worthy’s ankle injuries, which surfaced on several midseason injury reports. Was Worthy given intermediate crossing routes because he couldn’t get open deep?
It’s a valid question, and one of many that will have to be answered going forward. No one would be surprised if Nagy was replaced going forward, especially since coach Andy Reid is going to have to make some basic changes to the Chiefs offense once Mahomes returns. We don’t have the answers to why Worthy was so ineffective this season, but it’s a mystery that definitely needs to be solved.