The Chiefs got ‘their guy,’ Xavier Worthy, on Thursday night

Last year, Kansas City was shut out at wide receiver. It wasn’t going to let that happen on Thursday night.

After getting shut out of selecting a wide receiver in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs were intentional on Thursday night, trading with the Buffalo Bills to move up and grab their guy.

That was Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy, whom the Chiefs selected with the 28th overall pick. The first thing that stands out about the 5-foot-11, 165-pounder is his blazing speed.

With his 4.21 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine, Worthy set the NFL record for the fastest time ever. But his downfield ability is not the only thing that caught Kansas City’s eye.

More than just a speedster

“[He’s a] good route runner,” said head coach Andy Reid of Worthy after the Chiefs made the selection. “He’s got good height; he’s just not very heavy. But I think you’ll see this toughness that he’s got, which jumped out at me. When you talk to their coach — [Texas] coach [Steve] Sarkisian and I are close. He kept talking about how smart he was. He’s got great football instincts, and he’s a tremendous worker. In this offense, you got to be able to do that and have those characteristics.”

Like Reid, Worthy wanted to make it clear immediately that he offers more than just vertical speed.

“I feel like down the field is obviously a given, but I feel like intermediate and the actual route running, the route tree, I feel like I can run it all,” said Worthy on his initial Zoom with the Kansas City media. “I feel like I’m effective from it all — bubble screens, reverses. Anywhere a ball can touch my hands, I feel like I can make a play.”

Of course, the warp speed should help. When the Chiefs traded wide receiver Tyreek Hill in the offseason following the 2021 season, they lost an element of their offense that became incredibly difficult to replicate.

Kansas City still managed to win back-to-back Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023, but it took the offense to win more in the intermediate areas of the field — and with the defense playing a greater role. The addition of Hollywood Brown via free agency (and now Worthy) should permit the Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes to get back to their roots, with opposing defenses having to respect the threat of a downfield pass.

General manager Brett Veach feels the duo of Brown and Worthy should open things up for the entire offense.

“Having Xavier and Hollywood, I think, will make life easier for Travis [Kelce] and Rashee [Rice],” said Veach. “I think, as the season goes on here, we’ll have an offense that can attack in multiple different ways and always keep defenses guessing.”

“Both those two (Brown and Worthy) can run well,” added Reid. “I think both love to play the game and are good football players. I think that will help us. It doesn’t hurt to have down-the-field speed. We’ve functioned without the great speed down the field and done well. But, if you have an opportunity to get somebody that you think is a good player — just not a speed guy, but a good football player — I think you probably need to take advantage of that.”

The team-building part of drafting Worthy is important, too. Because he was selected in the first round, Worthy remains under team control for the next five seasons.

“If there’s a chance Hollywood can come in here and produce, we’d love to extend him, but the reality of it is, he’s only on a one-year deal, too,” acknowledged Veach. “There’s a premium in this league on speed and playmaking ability — and [Worthy] has that — so I think the vision is we have him for five years now, and that’s a big deal for us as we try to keep this thing together and add pieces.

“Those playmakers are hard to come by, and they’re expensive in the offseason. For this year, having him and Hollywood and Travis and Rashee, I think is going to be really exciting. But we also know there’s the additional factor that you have Xavier under contract for five years. And so that’s a motivating factor, just the length of these contracts.”

Kansas City’s new returner

Worthy should also benefit the Chiefs on special teams. In 2023, the Football Writers Association of America and The Sporting News named him a second-team All-American as a punt returner.

With last year’s top returner options, Richie James and Mecole Hardman, no longer with the club, Worthy can be penciled in at that position. And he seems ready to take on that role.

“I’m a small guy, small player, so I kind of pride myself on just being a difference-maker,” explained Worthy, “somebody that’s going to make a play, whether that’s being tough, making a big play just on blocking, receiving the ball on special teams. Anything. I just pride myself with heart, and I feel like that’s what motivates me and makes me different.”

Kansas City got to know Worthy at the combine, and Reid immediately took a liking to him.

“I like his makeup,” declared Reid. “I like the fact that he could go all day — and that he loves football. You guys kind of know how we’re wired here. Brett makes that a real characteristic that he likes. Likewise, as coaches, we love that… You could tell. He’s passionate about the sport. I think you’ll see this when you meet him. And he loves to play. And he’s good at it.”

Veach said that the scout on Worthy described him as coachable and tough-minded.

“You have a dynamic playmaker with top-end vertical speed,” the general manager said. “Smart, and you can move him around, do different things with him. I think it was, from where we started, every step of the way, it just kind of validated the things we thought all along.”

A sneaking suspicion

Somehow, through it all, Worthy says he always knew he’d be a Chief.

“I’ve been calling it,” he said. “I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the year. ‘I’m going to the Chiefs.’ Everybody thought the NFL was never going to let the Chiefs get to me. But I’m here. I’m excited, man, just to be able to play with Pat. Seeing the success that Tyreek Hill had in this offense, I feel like it will be amazing.”

Worthy won’t be Hill, exactly. And he won’t need to be. Reid actually likens him more to another one of his former players: DeSean Jackson.

But you know what? That’s OK. If Thursday is the first night of a 15-year NFL career, he’ll probably take it… especially as he considers his quarterback.

“Everybody’s dream is to play with Patrick Mahomes, probably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Just to be able to play for him, everybody talks about it. I’ve been saying it for a while.

“‘I’m going to be a Chief.’

He was right.