KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rookie Xavier Worthy’s career day started with controversy.
The speedy wide receiver, the Kansas City Chiefs’ first-round pick eight months ago from Texas, showed up at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium for Saturday’s win against the Houston Texans wearing a Texas Tech jersey.
“It surprised me today because they’re playing right now, but I appreciate the support,” Mahomes said, noting that the Longhorns were playing Clemson at that very moment in the College Football Playoff.
Worthy flipped the No. 5 Red Raiders jersey around to show Mahomes’ name — and not Texas Tech’s — for his postgame press conference.
“This is just for Pat,” Worthy clarified to laughter. “I’m not supporting Tech, but I’m watching the game, too. I messed up showing up to the game with the Tech up front. Everyone was getting on me, so I had to flip it around.”
Clearly, Worthy and Mahomes have grown to be friends off the field, but the pair also are showing an increasingly tighter bond on the field — as evidenced by Worthy’s career-high seven catches for 65 yards, which is the second-most in his NFL career.
Mahomes has now targeted Worthy 11 times in consecutive games, which also is a career-high for Worthy.
“He’s getting more and more comfortable,” Mahomes said. “I think since the Bills game you can see that. Now, we’ve just got to continue to work him and give him more opportunities downfield.”
Worthy never had more than four catches in his first nine career games, topping 40 yards twice in that span, and seemed to hit a wall in early November. He didn’t have a catch against Tampa Bay and managed only one the next week against Denver.
But Worthy has had at least four catches and at least 41 yards in each of the last six games.
“It’s just been gradual,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I can’t tell you the exact game, but it’s been a few games now that he can do all those things, and we feel good about it.”
The speed has always been there, but he showed Mahomes something else on Nov. 17 in a loss at Buffalo.
“It was just the speed he was playing at,” Mahomes said. “You can tell when a guy’s not thinking, when he’s just playing and letting his natural ability work. That Bills game he was playing fast and I think that gave me confidence to give him more and more opportunities. ... As a quarterback, you can feel how he’s running a route, setting it up and getting himself open. That gives you confidence to make the throws.”
Worthy showed that on an 8-yard touchdown in the third quarter against Houston.
“We originally were calling that play for man, but they ended up going zone (coverage), so I just tried to get a feel for what they were going to do in the zone, saw an open area and rushed to it,” Worthy said.
He said the Texans’ defense hollering “zone it, zone it” pre-snap certainly helped, but the route was impeccable.
“His talent is through the roof and he has a chance to be a really special football player,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes also said it was actually an incompletion to Worthy that “stood out” from the rookie’s performance.
Worthy beat Derek Stingley Jr. deep down the right sideline for a contested catch. He couldn’t quite get his right foot down in the end zone, but Mahomes appreciated the effort.
“That’s one of the best corners in the league,” Mahomes said. “For him to go up and make a catch on a guy like that, I know he ended up out of bounds, but that’s what you want to see.”
Worthy credited some of the team’s veteran receivers — DeAndre Hopkins and Hollywood Brown, most notably — for helping him grow and develop by imparting the finer points of the position.
“I feel like I’ve got all these old heads in the room, so they’re kind of making it easy for me to understand the game and learn the nuances of everything,” Worthy said.
Reid has noticed, too.
“When they start making the little, subtle adjustments on routes and not just running lines, that’s when you know they are headed in the right direction,” Reid said. “He’s been doing that and still getting to where Pat can use him, which ends up being the most important thing, and on time.”
Mahomes’ timing with Worthy also showed up in a slant late in the game, when he hit his emerging target at full speed for a first down that almost went the distance.
“Man, I wanted to score on that one so bad,” Worthy said. “I feel like our chemistry and our confidence with each other is building and it’s just going to keep growing every week.”
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