The Chiefs didn’t need Xavier Worthy all afternoon Sunday, but they got a loud reminder of what he can do when the ball finds him.
Kansas City sprinted to a 9-0 first-quarter lead over the Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium and never looked back, winning 22-6. The opening burst came from a familiar mix: five carries, including a 33-yard touchdown run, by Kenneth Walker III, plus Patrick Mahomes completing 5 of 6 passes for 58 yards. But the first quarter also featured Worthy turning in the kind of game that made him such an intriguing piece in the first place.
Worthy finished with seven catches for 73 yards, his second-most receptions and third-most receiving yards in a regular-season game. Those numbers also represented half of his previous 2026 total in catches, which stood at 14, and more than half of his 2026 yardage total of 133.
That mattered because Worthy had spent much of the early season looking like an afterthought, no matter the reason. Maybe it was the way plays were drawn up.
Maybe it was how defenses were playing him. Maybe, as Andy Reid said Monday, it really is just that there is “one football.”
Whatever the explanation, the 2024 first-round pick had been stuck in the background far too often.
That has fueled plenty of speculation that the quiet production is about shortcomings. But Worthy’s rise and fall has been tied to more than that, especially after an injury-hit but still disappointing second season. His numbers have been hard to ignore, and so has the question of when - or whether - he would look like the player he flashed as a rookie.
A few weeks ago, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was asked directly about it. He didn’t bite on the idea that something was wrong.
“I don’t think there’s anything going on,” he said, adding that Worthy prepares well mentally and physically every week.
Then Bieniemy grinned and said, “You know, we’ve got stuff for him.”
He acknowledged that defenses can sometimes take that away while opening a different window elsewhere. Still, he added, “Obviously,” Bieniemy said then, “we’ve got to find a way to get a little more creative with him.”
Kansas City took a step in that direction against the Raiders, even if Tyquan Thornton’s five catches for 111 yards and his gruesome injury wound up overshadowing it. Worthy still came away with four receptions for 70 yards in that game, including a contested 41-yard grab on third-and-10 - the third-longest regular-season catch of his career.
With Thornton now out indefinitely and Rashee Rice sidelined Sunday by the hamstring injury he suffered in Las Vegas, Worthy moved into a more central role against the Chargers. The Chiefs leaned on him early.
On the first two drives, he hauled in a sprawling 15-yard catch and then a diving 4-yard grab. Later, on a third-and-2 crossing route, he appeared to adjust well enough to give Mahomes a clean window between two defenders for another 15-yard gain.
That kind of play was especially important given Kansas City’s issues in short-yardage situations.
“I feel like they trust me …” Worthy said in the locker room after the game. “Obviously, having the trust of your team is big.”
The trust from Mahomes may matter even more. The two looked in sync on the Chiefs’ first offensive snap, though the play was wiped out by an illegal block on Travis Kelce.
Worthy worked across the middle as Mahomes settled in, then turned and accelerated again toward the sideline. The would-be 33-yard gain vanished because of the penalty, but the route still hinted at how their connection is developing.
Afterward, Worthy said it wasn’t really about a new adjustment, though he added, “I kind of had just felt space” - and moved into it.
For a player who has been the subject of so much skepticism, Sunday was a needed reminder that the room for impact is still there.
It was only one game, and one game won’t erase the doubts. Worthy still has more to prove.
But he is still only 23, still owns the NFL Combine 40-yard dash record at 4.21 seconds, and still has the kind of speed that can alter a defense in a hurry. His 2025 season was also affected by the shoulder injury he suffered on the third play of the opening loss to the Chargers in Brazil, when he collided with Kelce.
That injury helped explain why his production dropped from 59 catches for 538 yards and six touchdowns in 2024 to 42 catches for 532 yards and one touchdown last season. He said during training camp in St. Joseph that he was “never 100 %” last year and that he couldn’t “run a lot of the things that I would normally run … in the way that I would want to.”
Before the injury, his last fully healthy outing was the eight-catch, 157-yard performance in the Chiefs’ 40-22 Super Bowl LIX loss to the Eagles.
“He’s always had this ability and can do all of this,” Reid said. “We’ve had the confidence that he can do all that.
That’s never been the question. I know I’ve been asked (about his production) a lot, but my answer’s been the same:
“He’s a good football player, and it’s just a matter of there’s only so many plays and so many times you can spread the ball around. Which I think is tough on a defense if you’re able to spread it around.”
Sunday suggested it could be even tougher if the Chiefs keep finding ways to get Worthy involved.
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