Xavier Worthy's rookie season is coming along just fine for the Kansas City Chiefs

Despite what some see as a slow start for Kansas City Chiefs rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy is actually having a solid rookie season.

There's no doubt that expectations were high for Worthy heading into 2024 given the fact that Kansas City traded up to take Worthy in the first round of the NFL Draft after he ran the fastest 40-yard dash in NFL Combine history. The Chiefs invested heavily into their wide receiver room in the offseason, with their biggest investment being Worthy in the draft. The Chiefs were itching to bring the deep ball back to their offense and wanted to create more explosive plays.

So far, the returns for Worthy have been up and down. He's given Chiefs Kingdom some good moments so far, but he's also had a few dud performances filled with miscues, moments when he looks like he's not quite on the same page with quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

That said, Worthy is still perfectly on track in his rookie season despite what some fans may think.

Firstly, it's important to remember what reasonable expectations were for Worthy in the first place. When Worthy was initially drafted, the Chiefs thought they were going to have Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown. The plan likely was to have Worthy learn for most of his rookie year behind Brown, who is a similar player only on a one year deal. There's only so many targets to go around, and with Worthy being a rookie surrounded by several more experienced players, there was always supposed to be a learning period.

Now, with Brown and Rice out for the season, along with many other injuries to Kansas City's wide receiver room, more eyes are on Worthy to contribute. It is similar to Rice's scenario in 2023 when he was brought along faster than what was probably fair because the Chiefs needed him to be good. Again, it was always unfair for Rice to carry most of the load as a rookie. It worked out, but that doesn't mean it's going to work out the same way with Xavier Worthy.

People also forget that Rice started out relatively slow and then really came on in the latter half of the season. Things eventually started to click despite early season drops and ball security issues. Worthy is in a great position to clean up some of the same mental mistakes and have a strong second half of the season.

Worthy's perceived slow start is more of a misinterpretation of the situation. It's also not fully on Worthy either. He has been open several times for huge plays where Patrick Mahomes simply missed him and the coaching staff could do a better job at putting Worthy in positions to succeed by letting him run more routes down the field instead of forcing him into contested catch situations as he was never a contested catch receiver.

Right now, Worthy sits at 19 receptions for 235 receiving yards and another 9 touches for 37 rushing yards and 5 total touchdowns. That means he's on pace to end the season with just under 600 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns which would be more than a solid rookie season and there's reason to believe that Worthy can pace ahead of those totals based on some of the flashes we've seen. Worthy is likely to have a few more big games this season especially with DeAndre Hopkins now getting acclimated into the offense and taking some of the pressure away.

If Worthy can continue to provide a reliable scoring threat in the red zone and sprinkle in a few deep shots here and there like he's been doing, he'll be perfectly on schedule for the Kansas City Chiefs.