{"id":21854,"date":"2025-01-25T03:34:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T03:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=21854"},"modified":"2025-01-25T03:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T03:34:44","slug":"xavier-worthy-remembers-the-bills-traded-out-of-pick-to-select-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=21854","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Worthy remembers the Bills traded out of pick to select him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-entry-summary p-dek\">Buffalo traded the No. 28 NFL Draft pick to the Chiefs, who selected the Texas product.<\/p>\n<p id=\"lFI3Kc\">Xavier Worthy\u2019s professional football journey began on April 25, 2024 \u2014 Day 1 of the\u00a0NFL Draft\u00a0\u2014 with one of the\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 premier rivals, the\u00a0Buffalo Bills, on the clock at No. 28 overall.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Oncoj2\">Buffalo opted not to make a selection. Instead, to the surprise of many, the team traded the pick to the Chiefs so it could move up from the fourth round to the third round later in the weekend.<\/p>\n<p id=\"dLhUtL\">Kansas City general manager Brett Veach called Worthy,\u00a0who was surrounded by his mother, family and close friends.<\/p>\n<div id=\"pf6UpG\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"p-scalable-video\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XZCOGzAH5mE?rel=0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"GnO0Jx\">Now, nine months later \u2014 three days before the Chiefs meet the Bills at Arrowhead Stadium for the\u00a0AFC Championship\u00a0\u2014 Worthy recalled the circumstances that led him to Kansas City.<\/p>\n<p id=\"TZPZdU\">\u201cI take it as a blessing,\u201d he said on Friday at the podium. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s a sign that [the Bills] didn\u2019t want me. So, at the end of the day, I\u2019m gonna play with a chip on my shoulder. This game means a little bit more. Obviously, it\u2019s the AFC Championship Game, but this is the team that traded their pick away to get somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"8T6AMR\">To Worthy\u2019s point, the Bills indeed went on to take wide receiver Keon Coleman five selections later. Both rookies went on to have productive seasons, but Worthy\u2019s availability enabled him to outgain Coleman in scrimmage yards, 742 to 565.<\/p>\n<p id=\"zmC7ex\">In Kansas City\u2019s Divisional round game against the\u00a0Houston Texans, Worthy stood out as the only wide receiver to catch a pass, finishing with five receptions for 45 yards. That speaks volumes, considering quarterback Patrick Mahomes tends to rely on the weapons he trusts the most in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"hlBJOy\">\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that works extremely hard [and] practices extremely hard,\u201d said Mahomes of Worthy on Wednesday. \u201cThe more and more chances and opportunities I\u2019ve given him, he\u2019s kind of taken them and ran with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"jaBeWV\">Against the Texans, Worthy caught a 21-yard pass down the left sideline. There were two instances earlier in the season in which he was able to snag the football in tough spots but not get his feet in bounds.<\/p>\n<p id=\"SYfGCb\">But there was no problem on this play, which led to a go-ahead field goal that gave Kansas City a lead it would never relinquish.<\/p>\n<p id=\"YRf3QF\">\u201cJust putting the ball up there \u2013 one-on-one matchup and letting him make a play,\u201d described Mahomes. \u201cI\u2019m excited for how he\u2019s progressed throughout the season, and hopefully we can progress for a few more games then \u2013 that will be a taking off point going into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"9QXlyl\">The night he was drafted, a case could be made that nobody was more excited than special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who often talked about Worthy\u2019s punt-return upside. Things dramatically shifted for the Chiefs when wide receiver Rashee Rice was lost for the season in Week 2.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Sr0TIt\">That meant head coach Andy Reid would need Worthy for a greater offensive role. The longtime head coach is notorious for bringing rookies along gradually, but the situation dictated trusting Worthy much earlier than anticipated.<\/p>\n<p id=\"uJMKuC\">The wide receiver played between 60 and 75% of offensive snaps until Week 13, when he was on the field for 83% of snaps. It has not dipped below 80% since.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mEpM3C\">\u201cHe\u2019s gotten better every week,\u201d said Reid of Worthy on Wednesday. \u201cHe\u2019s more familiar, Pat\u2019s more familiar with him, he\u2019s more familiar with the offense and then what Pat expects from him. (Wide Receivers Coach) Connor [Embree] has done a nice job of spending time with him to make sure that he has all the different types of looks. The main thing is he\u2019s wired the way where he wants to be good, and that\u2019s a big part of it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"S1jLyI\">\u201cHe just wants to know and [not] let his ego get in the way or anything like that. He has good teachers in there. You\u2019re in a room with 8 (DeAndre Hopkins) and 9 (JuJu Smith-Schuster) and 84 (Justin Watson). I mean, those guys have all played a lot of football, and they\u2019re willing to share, and so it\u2019s a heck of a room to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"U5z5mJ\">Hopkins\u2019 midseason arrival via trade is probably the best thing that could have happened to Worthy \u2014 who, by all reports, has taken full advantage of retaining anything he can from the five-time All-Pro.<\/p>\n<p id=\"tFkyxX\">A few times, Worthy has mentioned that his takeoff point was the Week 11 loss in Buffalo, where he finished with four catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p id=\"zXWCQF\">\u201cI feel like I just kept stacking every game [after that],\u201d said Worthy. \u201cAll the vets \u2014 like Pat, Trav, D-Hop, JuJu \u2014 having guys like that makes it real easy to give you insight on the game, and just learning from them and keep taking tools from them. I can\u2019t preach enough just learning from D-Hop. As D-Hop says, I\u2019m kind of like the little brother, so getting knowledge from them is just going to keep expanding my game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"NG1t2V\">Hopkins has been happy to serve as Worthy\u2019s mentor, and by his words, you can tell the veteran treats it as a privilege.<\/p>\n<p id=\"FEM9Qm\">\u201cIt\u2019s easy when you got someone like him who\u2019s willing to work, who\u2019s willing to learn and ask questions,\u201d said the 32-year-old Hopkins on January 16. \u201cHe definitely reminds me of myself when I was young around Andre Johnson, just asking questions, absorbing not just on the field but off the field, how to get his body prepared for big games and things like that, so it\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"2NSw6e\">The Chiefs have played in many important games in recent seasons, but it\u2019s worth noting that these two individuals \u2014 the grizzled vet in Hopkins and the 21-year-old Worthy \u2014 are new to the AFC Championship.<\/p>\n<p id=\"tmCDZI\">Hopkins won\u2019t let Worthy forget that \u2014 and it\u2019s something he carries with him.<\/p>\n<p id=\"erHxmg\">\u201cHe tells me all the time: \u2018Cherish this. A lot of people don\u2019t get this opportunity to play for a team that\u2019s always a contender. Just cherish this moment and do everything you can to elevate yourself for this moment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buffalo traded the No. 28 NFL Draft pick to the Chiefs, who selected the Texas product. Xavier Worthy\u2019s professional football journey began on April 25, 2024 \u2014&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Xavier Worthy remembers the Bills traded out of pick to select him - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=21854\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Xavier Worthy remembers the Bills traded out of pick to select him - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Buffalo traded the No. 28 NFL Draft pick to the Chiefs, who selected the Texas product. 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