Worthy Addresses Chiefs’ Deep-Ball Inconsistency

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A month ago in Denver, a Patrick Mahomes pass sailed past Xavier Worthy’s arms like a Coors Field home run.

That incompletion, a sure touchdown on the game’s second play in an eventual 22-19 loss, wasn’t something new. Later in that same quarter, the two couldn’t connect on another pass deep down the middle.

Watch Worthy discuss below...

“Missing those three weeks, that I missed at the beginning of the season kind of probably took a little downfall to it,” Worthy said Wednesday. “I mean, we felt like we had kind of a great connection coming into the year.”

That’s because late in the Super Bowl blowout against Philadelphia, they hit on a 50-yard touchdown. Arguably the best pass of Mahomes’ career, it was supposed to serve as a chemistry catapult into 2025.

xavier worth — Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy (1) scores a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX at Ceasars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The next official pass in his direction

Then, on the next official pass Mahomes threw in Worthy’s direction, disaster struck. On the season’s third play in Brazil against the Chargers, Worthy collided with 6-5, 250-pound Travis Kelce. The receiver missed all of that 27-21 loss as well as the next two games with a disclocated shoulder.

The absence didn’t help Worthy’s chemistry with Mahomes on those deep balls. And since Kansas City selected Worthy in the first round of the 2024 draft, the tandem's deep-ball consistency has been a bit inconsistent.

Mahomes is just 9 of 35 (25.7 percent) when targeting Worthy on deep balls over the receiver’s career. The positive spin is that they’ve actually been better during the team’s recent slide. The quarterback is 4 of 7 on deep balls to Worthy over the last three games.

That doesn’t include Worthy’s costly drop at Dallas, when Mahomes knew he had a free play after the Cowboys jumped offside. The penalty officially wiped out the incompletion.

“Probably just need to get back on that,” Worthy said Wednesday, “get in practice and run full-speed routes. It’s just a thing that happens and nothing that happens overnight. So, just got to figure it out.”

The Tyreek Hill days

When they do, they’ll be on the road toward replicating what Mahomes had earlier in his career with Tyreek Hill, a deep threat that opened the rest of the offense underneath. Kansas City has seen tastes of that this year since Rashee Rice returned in Week 7, but certainly not as consistently as they need it to be.

Perhaps Worthy can reclaim that catalyst role that helped spark the offense in October, and do it by writing better memories in a revenge game against the Chargers on Sunday (12 p.m. CT, CBS/KCTV, Channel 5, 96.5 The Fan).

“Yeah, having a great game cool,” Worthy said, “but we have bigger things ahead of us. We need to win out, obviously, to be able to have that chance to make the playoffs. But we still need people to lose, unfortunately, but just to be able to get that chance. Just going out there executing and getting the job done.”

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