A Worthy dart throw?

By: Josh Frey-Sam

I take you back to Brazil in Week 1 of the 2025 season. Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Chargers.

First play from scrimmage: four-yard run from Isiah Pacheco.

Second play: zero-yard run on a hand-off to Xavier Worthy.

Third play: Incomplete pass, as Worthy collides with Travis Kelce on a mesh concept and is injured.

Worthy tore his labrum on the play, derailing what many had hoped would be a breakout season before it really ever started.

Fast forward to this season, and the fantasy world seems to be treating Worthy as an afterthought. However, as I sit here writing this brief, I can’t help but feel it’s way too early to give up on this still-just 23-year-old, entering his third season in the league.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ offence was terrible last season, and that can be attributed to many things — a lack of run game, a WR1 in Rashee Rice who has a limited skillset, an aging Travis Kelce and a potential breakout star in Worthy who was a shell of himself while playing through injury.

Worthy missed the rest of the season-opener and the two games that followed, but gutted through his shoulder injury the rest of the season. As head coach Andy Reid later admitted, the problem was that his injury limited what the Chiefs could do with him, which significantly handcuffed the offence.

Worthy was going to be featured heavily in a variety of ways, including on deep and crossing routes to get him in space. Instead, his route tree became severely limited to account for his shoulder the rest of the season, and his having just one top-20 WR finish reflected that.

Reid recently revisited that disappointment: "We were afraid to do certain things with him. 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."

That sure sounds like a head coach who still believes in his player and hopes to follow through on his plans to feature him again.

Worthy is the WR51, going in the 11th round of drafts right now— which, if you think about it, is kind of crazy considering his elite speed and play-making ability in an offence helmed by Patrick Mahomes.

There are a few things that I think work in Worthy’s favour this season.

The fact that Kansas City hardly addressed the WR room outside of rookie fifth-rounder Cyrus Allen this off-season bodes well for Worthy in that the Chiefs clearly felt they had the pieces necessary to return to a prolific offence this season.

That puts pressure on Worthy to fulfill his billing as a first-round selection, and it puts pressure on the Chiefs to use him the way they planned to.

I also think the addition of Ken Walker is a boon to everyone on the offence. No one was afraid of the Chiefs’ running game last season, allowing defences to sit back and defend the pass. With an explosive rushing element in Walker, we could see defences creep forward more, allowing for Worthy to showcase that elite speed downfield.

Finally, there have been a lot of positive reports about Worthy this off-season, talking about how sharp he’s looked since recovering from shoulder surgery and the connection he’s continued to develop with Mahomes.

Listen, there is risk in drafting Worthy. He’s a small, speedy receiver who has already dealt with his fair share of injuries this season.

But the upside, as we all hoped last year, is still massive.

Getting him as your WR5 is the perfect ceiling pick to make late in drafts. Throw that dart.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Josh