Xavier Worthy Fantasy Overview

2024 Summary

Production & Fantasy Finishes

Worthy started his first NFL regular-season game and set unreasonable fantasy expectations by scoring on two of his three touches: a 21-yard run and a 35-yard reception.

Worthy would remain a low-volume target through the first month, but the action picked up after WR Rashee Rice suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 4.

From Week 5 through the playoffs, Worthy ranked 44th among WRs in target share (adjusted for games missed). He ranked 49th in yardage share and 31st in TD share.

The rookie checked in 32nd in PPR points per game over that span; 38th in expected fantasy points per game. He finished six weeks ranked higher than WR30 in PPR points, including consecutive finishes of WR16, WR11, and WR15 in weeks 15-17.

Usage & Role

Worthy spent about 62% of his pass snaps out wide, according to Pro Football Focus, 36.3% in the slot. His mere 10.8 yards per catch belied a role that found him running deep plenty.

Worthy tied for 19th-most targets 20+ yards downfield, according to PFF, while tying for 24th in total targets. He tied for 26th in catches, though, snagging just seven of those 21 opportunities. Only three WRs – Rome Odunze, Keon Coleman, and Keenan Allen – caught fewer passes on 21+ deep targets.

The K.C. rookie made just four other receptions in the range of 10-19 yards. That left 39 of his receptions in the “short” range (0-9 yards) and another 28 behind the line of scrimmage.

His 6.7 yards after catch per reception ranked 12th among 106 WRs with 40+ targets for the season. The aDOT tied for 81st among that group – with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and just short of John Metchie.

Offensive Context

Worthy’s playing time got a boost in Week 14. After he reached 70% in snap share just twice over the first 12 games, Worthy never dipped below 79.7% among the final seven – including the playoffs.

In addition to Rice going down early in the season, Worthy never played with a full version of Marquise Brown. The veteran suffered an August shoulder injury that didn’t allow him to return until Week 16. He totaled just 28 targets across five games from there through the playoffs.

K.C. also lacked the run game it expected to have entering the year. Isiah Pacheco broke a leg in Week 2 and returned late in the year at a dramatically limited version of himself. Kareem Hunt averaged just 3.6 yards per carry as the stand-in backfield leader.

2025 Expectations

Projected Role & Competition

Worthy should find consistently strong playing time after opening his first season as a starter and finishing No. 2 on the team in targets.

He’ll face stiffer competition for those looks, though, as long as Rice and Brown hit the season healthy. (Really, it’ll get tougher even if just one of them does so.)

Worthy will need more connections on those deep balls to boost his fantasy scoring. Fortunately for him, last year marked Mahomes’ career low for deep-ball completion rate – on a career low for deep attempts (16 fewer than his previous low).

Check the annual completion rates:

• 2024: 29.6%
• 2023: 31.6%
• 2022: 44.3%
• 2021: 47.4%
• 2020: 32.1%
• 2019: 53.4%
• 2018: 45.3%
• Career: 41.0%

We’ll go ahead and bet this is an area the QB and new wideout need to work on – rather than something they can’t do together.

Supporting Cast

Mahomes is the biggest factor favoring any Chiefs pass-catcher, but it also has the potential to overrate his teammates in fantasy drafts.

In Mahomes’ seven seasons as starter, just two years have found the Chiefs place more than one WR among the top 40 in PPR points per game:

• 2018: Tyreek Hill at WR4, Sammy Watkins at WR37. Watkins played in just 10 games that year. And Mahomes threw 50 TD passes, still nine more than he has tossed in any other season.
• 2022: Mecole Hardman at WR33, JuJu Smith-Schuster at WR36. Hardman played in just eight games. Mahomes led the league in passing yards and TD passes that year.

This year’s Chiefs might present the best collection of WR talent Mahomes has had. And TE Travis Kelce is clearly near the end of his road. But that scoring history highlights how difficult it will be to support multiple high scorers at WR.