The Kansas City Chiefs didn't get much from Xavier Worthy last season, and Andy Reid took a deeper dive into why.
The Kansas City Chiefs had a lot of things go wrong last season offensively, and one of the big reasons was teh lack of production from speed receiver Xavier Worthy. When Worthy got hurt it also hurt his biggest strength, and the changes the Chiefs made in their offense were a big part of why Worthy had a down year, according to Jesse Newell of The Athletic.
Newell’s source was coach Andy Reid, who provided some surprisingly revealing comments. Worthy tore his labrum in the third play of the season in a collision with tight end Travis Kelce, and that quickly limited what Worthy could do and forced the Chiefs to change.
“That was a unique deal,” Reid said during a side interview at the NFL’s annual meeting on Tuesday. “I would tell you that we kind of, after that, we were afraid to do certain things with (Worthy). So I think him coming back healthy, I think opens up that whole picture you saw during training camp, where he had a whole bunch of different routes in there.”
Worthy sat out two games after the initial injury, then returned to play in 14 overall. He caught 42 passes for 532 yards, but he had to wear a brace, which meant he couldn’t run crossing routes.
Those routes were Worthy’s bread-and-butter move, as his 2024 stats showed. He ran them on 19 percent of his snaps that year, which was higher than any other receiver who was targeted 60 times or more.
Last season that number dipped to 14 percent, and Worthy actually fell behind teammates Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice in crossing route percentage.
“He’s fearless across the middle,” Reid said of Worthy on Tuesday. “As a matter of fact, that’s one of the best things he does, is working underneath and over the top in that. So we kind of stayed away from that.”
Removing crossing routes also took away some of Worthy’s yards-after-catch opportunities, which is also one of his strengths. The good news is he was able to recover without surgery, and Worthy is also fully recovered from the ankle issue he played through late in the year.
“He’ll be fine,” Reid said.
Worthy’s success with crossing routes includes two touchdown passes against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Chief’s Super Bowl loss, so the Chiefs are hoping to reintegrate that weapon into the offense.
“He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s not afraid to run crossing routes. Sometimes you see those guys and they tiptoe across. He goes 100 miles an hour, man,” Reid said in February 2025. “All the stuff he did was all new compared to what he did in college. So we’re seeing it, and then for (quarterback) Pat (Mahomes) to be able to trust and know where he’s going to be … all that stuff takes time. So that’s a great thing.”
The explanation makes sense, but Reid is also being slightly disingenuous in his comments. One of the reasons Worthy dropped to the bottom of the first round when the Chiefs selected him was his slender frame, which is especially exposed on crossing routes. It’s fine to say the Chiefs will be able to do this again, but they may have to be more selective about the situations in which they run it.