Wide receiver Xavier Worthy of the Kansas City Chiefs watches from the sideline during the second quarter of a preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 9. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
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Talk about déjà vu.
The Los Angeles Chargers took a 10-point lead, and one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ best wide receivers collided with a star player, resulting in a serious injury.
That could be referring to the 27-21 loss to the Chargers on Friday night … or the previous year’s 17-10 win against the Chargers.
On the Chiefs’ third play of the Week One game in Brazil, future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce collided with Xavier Worthy, and the Chiefs’ leading wide receiver in yardage last year hurt his right shoulder. The Chargers went on to take a 10-point lead.
Just before the Chargers took a 10-point lead in Week Four of last year, future Hall of Famer Patrick Mahomes threw an interception on the Chiefs’ fifth play. While trying to make a tackle, he collided with Rashee Rice, and the leading receiver in yardage in 2023 suffered a knee injury that ended his 2024 season.
“Those are two of our best receivers,” Mahomes said, “and obviously threats down the field.”
Rice is suspended for the first six games of the year because of his role in a multi-car crash in Dallas that left multiple people injured during the 2024 offseason, which will cost him $421,824 or more than one-third of the $1.3 million he was supposed to make this season.
Worthy did not return, and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said they won’t have a prognosis until the second-year player receives an MRI when the team returns to the United States.
“That’s someone who’s a huge part of our gameplan, someone that we’re counting on to make plays against some of the man coverage that they played,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, other guys had to step up.”
Without Worthy or Rice, Mahomes was left with a motley crew of other wide receivers — Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Nikko Remigio, Jason Brownlee, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton.
All of those available wide receivers are on one-year deals, and the only one making more than $2 million this year is Brown.
And though Brown, who suffered his own shoulder injury last year, had one bad drop, he caught 10 balls for 99 yards, including a terrific 49-yard pass on 4th and 7 with 3:42 left in the fourth quarter. It was a dose of Mahomes Magic as he got the pass off despite pressure by Khalil Mack.
Brown, Mahomes and Co. moved the ball better in the second half after going 0-of-7 on third down in the first.
“The first half we were off a bit, and then the second half, it picked up a little bit,” Reid said. “We had more explosives there. We got a little rhythm.”
Of greater concern than the pass offense is the pass defense. Quarterback Justin Herbert had wide-open targets all game long and was 8-for-8 for 73 yards on the Chargers’ final scoring drive.
The poor performance on that side of the ball is why the Chiefs lost this game unlike the similar road contest last year when the Chiefs shut out the Chargers the rest of the way after falling behind 10-0 and losing Rice.
After losing Friday night’s game, the Chiefs broke a remarkable streak of winning 17 straight one-possession games, including last September’s comeback win vs. the Chargers.
“We learned a valuable lesson today. We’ve got to be better from the get-go,” Mahomes said. “We’re not going to be able to just come back and win every single game. Teams are too good in this league.”