Patrick Mahomes: 'There's no easing' rookie WR Xavier Worthy into things during Chiefs training camp
The Chiefs officially begin their quest for a third straight Super Bowl today with quarterbacks and rookies kicking off training camp. And Patrick Mahomes has a message for Xavier Worthy, the team’s first-round draft pick.
“There’s no easing,” Mahomes told reporters. “He’s going to have to be ready to go. We 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 it with Rashee [Rice] last year and 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. That’s not just him. That’s everybody and everybody has to have that mentality when they come into camp.”
The Chiefs did have some flaws last season, but the team caught fire in the playoffs to eventually win the Super Bowl, their third title in four seasons. If anything Mahomes didn’t have receivers who could blow the top off a defense. Worthy, the former Texas Longhorn, is that guy. No other rookie has ever run as quickly as Worthy did at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. His 4.21-second time in the 40-yard dash was a combine record, with Worthy’s cleats now on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
So the Chiefs can’t afford Worthy to ease his way into the offense. They traded up with Buffalo to target Worthy with the 28th pick of the first round of April’s draft.
The Chiefs train a bit differently than other teams. Mahomes and the other quarterbacks will be there with the rookies at Missouri Western in St. Joseph, Mo. Other teams invite the rookies to arrive first, then all the veterans. And some others simply have everyone report at once.
Kansas City isn’t relying solely on Worthy to be a big-play receiver. During free agency, the Chiefs also signed Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, the former Oklahoma Sooner who was Baltimore’s first-round pick in 2019. KC signed Brown from the Cardinals. He’s not as fast as Worthy — no one is — but he still possesses game-breaking speed. No doubt, having them both on the field will give Travis Kelce some uncluttered paths through a zone defense.
Mahomes also told reporters that although the Chiefs won the ultimate prize, 2023 wasn’t that fun of a time.
“I mean, obviously the end result was awesome,” Mahomes told reporters. “But I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth. We really didn’t play football the way we wanted all year long. It wasn’t fun. Every single week, having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you want it to — it wasn’t a lot of fun.”