The Kansas City Chiefs have wide receiver problems, and it’s not just all the Rashee Rice news that’s causing blood pressure to rise, based on the latest Xavier Worthy injury update from OTAs.
“Chiefs third-year WR Xavier Worthy was spotted in a clip from practice wearing the yellow jersey, which signals no-contact,” A-to-Z Sports Kansas City reporter Charles Goldman relayed on May 27.
“Obviously, this is a non-contact practice anyway, but this is meant to signal that he’s hurt and not 100% healthy,” Goldman explained. “If you’ll recall, Worthy suffered a labrum injury in Week 1 of last season after colliding with Travis Kelce on a routine play in Brazil. He played the entire 2025 NFL season with the injury before having surgery to repair it in January. That’s in addition to an ankle injury he suffered in Week 5.”
Apparently, one of those injuries is still giving Worthy some trouble here in late May.
Goldman concluded that a “limited” Worthy is “not great news” for a WR corps that’s already without Rice for the foreseeable future.
Xavier Worthy Has Had Trouble Staying Healthy; Latest Chiefs Injury Update Doesn’t Help
GettyKansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy is currently “limited” with an injury at OTAs.
Worthy has had a similar issue to Rice in terms of availability. Neither premium draft pick has been reliable in this regard, but for different reasons.
Although Rice did miss most of his second season due to knee surgery, he’s also missed time based on his well-documented off-the-field problems.
Worthy’s off-the-field record has not necessarily been spotless either, but he’s never missed a game because of anything besides injuries. Unfortunately, he’s had a lot of nagging injuries.
Heading into his draft year, that was the major fear when it came to Worthy. The speed-demon playmaker flashed a ton of rare talent, but his skinny frame wasn’t built for the NFL.
At least so far, that pre-draft fear has been justified.
Technically, Worthy has only missed 3 regular season games due to injury. But any Chiefs fan knows that stat is a bit misleading.
Worthy has constantly played through injuries during his NFL tenure, and it’s seemingly impacted his performance, leading to just 638 receiving yards as a rookie and 532 receiving yards in year two. Not horrible, but not great for a first-round pick.
Worthy has had an impact as a runner, too, but he’s yet to have that breakout campaign that KC envisioned when they selected him. It’s early, but Chiefs fans will hope that this May 27 update isn’t the start of another injury-hampered season.
Chiefs Wide Receiver News at OTAs
The only positive to Rice and Worthy being either “out” or “limited” is that others will get more opportunities.
Second-year wide receiver Jalen Royals has earned most of the early hype at OTAs, getting a shout-out from head coach Andy Reid early on. Goldman noted that Royals was seen getting one-on-one attention from the Chiefs HC at the most recent practice.
Similarly, rookies Cyrus Allen, Jeff Caldwell, Jacob De Jesus, Omari Evans, and Xavier Loyd have all been getting a lot more playing time as they try to pick up this complex system.
It will be interesting to see if any of these youngsters emerge at wide receiver as the summer progresses. For now, the Chiefs will likely look to Worthy, Tyquan Thornton, and Royals if Rice should miss any time this fall.
Chiefs’ Xavier Worthy Injury Update Deemed ‘Not Great News’