Xavier Worthy — Week 1: Six Targets, Eighteen Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Tuesday, Sep 15
Worthy tied for the team lead with six targets and caught three for 18 yards; the throws to him were worth minus 8.5 expected points, the lowest on the team, and included both of his third-down targets falling incomplete and the deep-middle interception from the Kansas City three with 9:47 left in the third quarter, in a 31–10 win over the Broncos.
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21 to seven, Chiefs, nine 47 left in the third quarter, first and 10 at the Kansas City three. Patrick Mahomes threw deep middle for Xavier Worthy and Brandon Jones intercepted it at the 29 and returned it to the five. −5.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −8.4 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the worst Chiefs play of the night. Denver kicked a field goal from it.
The line: six targets, three catches, 18 yards, one first down, −8.5 expected points on the targets. The catches were nine yards on second and 10 in the first quarter, four on second and one at the Denver 17 before the half, and five on second and 10 late in the third. The two third-down targets both fell incomplete — third and seven with two 55 left in the first quarter, and third and two with six 46 left in the half, which cost 4.2 points of win probability and ended a drive at the Kansas City 43. Four targets before halftime, two after. The throws to him traveled 42 yards in the air on the six targets; the interception was the one deep ball.
The split: Worthy and Kenneth Walker six targets each, Travis Kelce five, Rashee Rice and Emmett Johnson two each, and one each to Cyrus Allen, Tyquan Thornton, Jake Briningstool and Noah Gray. 27 throws on the night against 31 designed runs. Rice's two targets were worth +2.1; Worthy's six were worth −8.5.
Back in June the preview leaned watchlist on Worthy — the 40-ninth receiver at pick one 14, priced for a bounce-back it could not underwrite after a year in a shoulder harness — and named two things to watch: the harness, and the September target split between him and Rice. Monday's split was six to two in Worthy's favor, and that is the volume half of the argument. The other half was 18 yards and an interception. Volume without conversion was the exact shape the preview worried about, and one game is one game. The split is the number to keep reading. The Chiefs are home to the Colts on Sunday night, the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Xavier Worthy's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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