Xavier Worthy - 2025 Fantasy Football Breakout Candidates and Draft Sleepers

Xavier Worthy is a fantasy football breakout candidate and draft sleeper for 2025. Read the fantasy football outlook and draft advice for the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver.

RotoBaller Ranking (half-PPR): WR21

Fantasy Draft Analysis: The buzz out of Kansas City's offseason is a renewed interest in pushing the football down the field. It was a staple of the early Patrick Mahomes era before it shifted to short-area attempts and a dedicated rushing attack in recent seasons.

It just so happens that the Chiefs roster the man who holds the record for the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.

2024 first-round pick Xavier Worthy was not one of the rookie receivers who broke out, but he did have his moments. The former Texas Longhorn scored twice on just four opportunities in his debut, had back-to-back 11-target games in the fantasy football playoffs, and set a Super Bowl record for most receiving yards (157) by a rookie (although a large chunk of that came in garbage time).

Worthy had to grow up quickly when Kansas City's WR1, Rashee Rice, suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 4. Marquise Brown was already on injured reserve. It was Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Travis Kelce, and, eventually, DeAndre Hopkins to gobble targets.

That's where things get interesting: Rice, Brown, and Worthy didn't play a single snap together last season. Throw in Kelce, and there are suddenly several suitable options for Mahomes.

Rookie Xavier Worthy has his 2nd touchdown of the game 👏

📺: #SBLIX on FOX
📱: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/8BuZ6UnCrh

— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

But Worthy and Rice are not remotely the same type of receiver. Rice dominates in the short and intermediate areas of the field and will be more of a hindrance to Kelce than Worthy. In the three full games Rice and Worthy shared the field, Kelce saw four, three, and five targets. That was three of his five lowest marks for the season.

Worthy's foe, if you will, is Brown. Hollywood was active for two regular-season games due to injury and didn't play more than 60% of the snaps until the postseason. But he earned 15 targets on 45 snaps in those late-season matchups.

The difference is that Worthy is an investment as a former first-round selection. Brown is on a one-year contract. Plus, Worthy is utilized in the red zone. Andy Reid and Matt Nagy's offensive creativity puts the speedster in motion, allowing a head start on jet sweeps or touch passes to find the end zone. Worthy was 10th in red-zone targets among wide receivers last season. Those aren't of the jump-ball variety.

In between the 20s, Worthy is much more than a deep threat. He averaged one long ball per game, but Reid opted to use Worthy more around the line scrimmage. While that significantly dropped his yards per target, his reception numbers received a bump. 39 of his 59 catches came in Week 10 or later. Worthy saw slower defenders as he scooted across the field. It also kept defenses honest, allowing Worthy to blow by cornerbacks on those high-value targets.

Fantasy managers shouldn't be faulted for taking a shot on Brown in the deep rounds of their fantasy drafts, but Worthy, at his fifth-round ADP, should be well worth the price. He can single-handedly win a week.

- Andrew Ball

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