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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — If there were any doubts about the Kansas City Chiefs‘ expectations for wide receiver Xavier Worthy, their first-round draft pick who missed most of offseason practice because of a sore hamstring, Patrick Mahomes cleared them up before training camp even started.
Mahomes said the Chiefs won’t be waiting on Worthy’s development.
“He’s going to have to be ready to go,” Mahomes said last week before the Chiefs opened a three-day mini-camp for quarterbacks and rookies at Missouri Western State University. “We’ve got a lot of competition on this offense.
“He got a lot of mental work in these last few weeks that he had during OTAs and minicamp, but it’s time to go now. Y’all saw with Rashee [Rice] last year, some of the throwing up days he had. We’re going to push you to the limit and prepare yourself to be ready to go for the season, and that’s not just him. That’s everybody, and everybody has to have that mentality when they come into camp.”
The Chiefs are counting on Worthy and his speed to revitalize a passing game that struggled last season to create big plays. Worthy’s speed — he was timed at 4.21 seconds in the 40-yard dash a few months ago, a scouting combine record — should help Mahomes get the ball downfield more successfully.
Mahomes threw to Worthy for a long touchdown on Sunday in the Chiefs’ first full-team training camp practice. Worthy ran a post pattern, and from the snap Mahomes appeared determined to get him the ball. Mahomes was flushed from the pocket by defensive pressure to his left, but he found enough time to plant and get the ball to Worthy, who was in the end zone and behind safety Bryan Cook.
Worthy got off to a slow start with the Chiefs by missing most of the offseason practice sessions because of his injury. That minimized his practice time with Mahomes, one reason the quarterback was eager to have Worthy back at training camp.
“It’s feeling good now,” Worthy said. “It felt good just to be back out here with the guys and just being able to play football again.”
Having to watch from the sideline during the offseason was a new experience for Worthy. He didn’t miss a game in his three seasons at Texas, making him remarkably durable for a player with a slight frame.
He is listed by the Chiefs at 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds.
“Had no injuries, really,” Worthy said. “So just having that happen … it is kind of frustrating, but I got a chance to learn and get better in a different way, learning the playbook. I took the time to really learn and tune the playbook, to ask the questions I needed to ask. … I feel like that really helped me.”
The Chiefs were being cautious with Worthy, as most teams are with injuries during the offseason. Mahomes indicated that if it were the regular season, Worthy would have been practicing with the injury.
Coach Andy Reid said the Chiefs didn’t want to take the risk of aggravating the injury. But he said it’s go time for Worthy now.
“He wants to get in there and go,” Reid said. “It was driving him crazy to have to watch. You don’t want to be the No. 1 pick, come in and be sitting on the bench and watching. He’s a competitive kid who wants to be in there. We are going to get him going. We’ve got to see how he’s doing here.”
Worthy has time at camp to make up what was lost in the spring. Like Mahomes and Reid, he said he sees the urgency in practicing.
“I definitely feel like it’s no time to ease in,” he said. “It’s all go. Once you’re here, you’re here. I understand definitely what Pat’s saying. Just building that connection with him is going to be key here.
“I’m as good as I could be right now.”
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