Things did not get off to a good start for the Kansas City Chiefs offense last Friday night in Brazil. On the Chiefs’ first offensive drive of not only the game, but of the season, Travis Kelce and Xavier Worthy both ran their routes a 3rd-and-6 in the hopes of extending the drive.
Unfortunately, while targeting Worthy on the play, Kelce ran into the second-year receiver, injuring him in the process. Worthy then missed the rest of the game with a shoulder injury and his status is up in the air moving forward.
The incident reminded Chiefs fans a lot of last year’s injury to Rashee Rice when Mahomes accidentally hit Rice, injuring him and causing him to miss the rest of the 2024 season. Well, after a promising rookie season (much like Rice had had entering 2024), one of Worthy’s own teammates seemingly injured him. While the hope is that Worthy won’t miss the entire year (and it doesn’t sound like that’ll be the case), Kelce still feels gutted about the situation.
The Chiefs tight end spoke about the incident on the New Heights podcast, stating, "I’m supposed to be running my route at depth for Worthy. So, it’s frustrating for me. I was trying to kind of set up my guy to be able to get into position, and it all just happened pretty quick. I just gotta be better, man. I’m 13 years in the league. There is no excuse for me running into my own guys like that…"
Travis Kelce takes blame for ugly collision with Xavier Worthy
While Kelce was the one who ran into Worthy, it’s not like he did it on purpose. Obviously Mahomes felt awful about the incident with Rice last year and Kelce clearly feels the exact same way. This sport is physical and violent and, unfortunately, friendly fire is going to happen from time to time.
Chiefs fans only hope that Worthy can return to the lineup sooner rather than later because right now, with Rice still serving his suspension, the starters are Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Tyquan Thornton. Hopefully rookie Jalen Royals gets healthy soon too and can help this offense out because they desperately need it.