Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy was knocked out of Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers due to a shoulder injury after being involved in a brutal collision with tight end Travis Kelce on the Chiefs’ opening drive. The incident occurred when the two were running crossing routes and inadvertently ran into each other.
Worthy took the worst of the impact. He was knocked over and was slow to get up before going to the locker room with a towel over his head. The play ended with quarterback Patrick Mahomes throwing an incompletion on a pass intended for Hollywood Brown. The team later confirmed Worthy was questionable to return with what is being called a shoulder injury before downgrading him to out in the second quarter.
Speaking to reporters following the game, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said that the team would know more about the severity of Worthy’s injury following an MRI upon their return to Kansas City.
Worthy’s injury marks yet another major blow to a Chiefs wide receiver corps that is already short-handed to begin the year. Kansas City entered their opener without wide receiver Rashee Rice, who was suspended for the first six games of the season stemming from a violation of the league’s personal conduct policy.
Worthy, the Chiefs’ first round pick in 2024, has been expected to assume a greater responsibility in Rice’s absence. The responsibility of carrying the Chiefs at wide receiver fell to others including Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Tyquan Thornton the rest of the night, and the Chiefs’ lack of high end firepower at receiver played a significant part in their 27-21 loss to the Chargers. Now, there is the matter of whether Worthy is forced to miss time, and who could possibly step into the prospective void if his shoulder injury sidelines him.
One free agent wide receiver still on the market is former Pro Bowler Allen Robinson, who volunteered his services in a post on X.