The Kansas City Chiefs added Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy with the 28th selection in the NFL Draft on April 25, and the rookie paid dividends in his debut.
In Kansas City’s 27-20 season-opening victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 5, Worthy had two receptions for 47 yards and a 21-yard carry on an end-around. The rushing attempt reached the end zone, and one of Worthy’s receptions went 35 yards for a touchdown, too.
Worthy had shot up draft boards when he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.21 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine, the fastest time on record at the annual event.
The Chiefs play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, and Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt was asked on Wednesday about dealing with Kansas City’s newest offensive weapon.
“Speed. That’s about it,” Taylor-Britt said. “He can run straight. Run jet sweeps and just run straight. He doesn’t do too much else, so that’s about it. I feel like if you put your hands on him, he’s only a hundred and some pounds. You put hands on him you’ll stop the speed, so basically put hands on him.”
The former Park Crossing High School standout said the same applied to the rest of Kansas City’s wide receivers, too.
“Put speed on speed,” Taylor-Britt said. “Simple as that. We got speed, too. Yeah, but most definitely, like I said, put hands on those guys, man. Don’t let them free release and just run by you, most definitely, so we got something planned for it.”
If the Chiefs take Taylor-Britt’s assessment as a belittlement, he doesn’t appear to care.
“I don’t like them,” Taylor-Britt said. “I don’t think I like a lot of teams. But, you know, we see them a lot. We see them a lot, and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted to our last time. So, yeah, of course, some guys think about it. I’m not thinking about it.
“But, yeah, playing those guys is always exciting, man. The competition, the guys on their side they have are good. But we have guys on our side that are just as good, so it’s a good time.”
The Bengals and Chiefs have squared off five times in the previous three seasons, including twice in the AFC Championship Game.
After Cincinnati defeated Kansas City 34-31 on the next-to-last Sunday of the 2021 regular-season, the Bengals defeated the Chiefs 27-24 in overtime in the AFC Championship Game four weeks later.
Cincinnati defeated Kansas City 27-24 in a 2022 regular-season game, but this time, the Chiefs won the rematch in the AFC Championship Game 23-20.
In 2023, Kansas City defeated Cincinnati 25-17 on the next-to-last Sunday of the regular season, and the loss helped keep the Bengals out of the playoffs.
The Chiefs went through the playoffs without Cincinnati and won the Super Bowl for the second season in a row.
The Bengals and Chiefs play again at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Taylor-Britt is set to play in his 24th NFL regular-season game on Sunday since joining Cincinnati in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
In his final season at Park Crossing in Montgomery,Taylor-Britt passed for 1,466 yards and 16 touchdowns and ran for 1,030 yards and 14 touchdowns to earn All-State recognition as the Thunderbirds quarterback. He made the transition to defensive back at Nebraska.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
