Could Bills Draft 40-Yard Dash Record Holder Xavier Worthy?
Texas Longhorns receiver Xavier Worthy may have run his way to Western New York and the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills hold the 28th pick in the NFL Draft and one of the most urgent win-now windows in the sport. Every Josh Allen-led playoff run without a championship is a playoff run closer to wasting the biggest star in franchise history.
Before a fateful 2024 season ensues, improvements will be made, especially at receiver. The NFL Scouting Combine provided no shortage of blazing 40-yard dashes to gawk at, but Worthy stands alone. Having officially run a 4.21 40-yard dash, he’s the Combine’s newest record holder for the fastest of all time.
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Worthy’s stock resided well within the Top 50 entering the weekend, but his performance may have cemented his presence in the first round of every mock draft until the Chicago Bears are truly on the clock.
Worthy gained some fans with his sprint to the record books, and there’s reason to believe Buffalo could be among them. The Bills held a formal meeting with Worthy at the Combine and the need for an ancillary target is overly apparent. Receiver Gabe Davis is all but gone and the Stefon Diggs rumors – while just rumors – weren’t helped by his late-season performance.
The Bills offense was effective in 2023. Allen was his usual self, an MVP-caliber passer, and improvements at tight end and running back showed up. But when Diggs got bottled up, life was made more difficult.
Worthy represents the type of dynamic talent the team lacked in 2023. Davis’ role was high-variance by nature, but Worthy’s brand of explosiveness is easier to tap into than Davis’. His speed stands out on tape and his ability to turn any catch into a big play is invaluable to an offense.
His accomplishment on Saturday should be celebrated. Record-breaking performances are rare for a reason and in a four-second span an immeasurable amount of training had paid off. But that doesn’t necessarily make him the right pick at No. 28.
Worthy’s warts lie in the physicality that is bound to fall short in a profile so fast. He’s 5-11 and a mere 165 pounds, putting himself in a class of receivers that hasn’t found much success. The game is changing in favor of explosive athletes, but these issues translate to the gridiron. Worthy’s hands are mediocre and he wasn’t trustworthy in contested-catch situations, hauling in just five of 20 opportunities this season.
Some teams are fine with living with that trade-off. Speed kills and it seems every team is searching for their own version of Tyreek Hill. But we didn’t learn anything from Worthy’s run other than that he now owns the record. Boosting his stock because of his Combine is a classic case of double-counting – we already knew he was fast.
If the Bills felt his film was worthy, no pun intended, of the 28th pick, then Saturday should only embolden them. This team needs reinforcements at receiver and he embodies lightning in a (very small) bottle. Don’t be surprised if Buffalo looks to Texas in the next mock draft you read.
