Xavier Worthy Week 1 Outlook - Ravens at Chiefs

By Derek Brown (FantasyPros), Wed, Sep 4th 2024, 8:38pm EDT

With Hollywood Brown sidelined Worthy should be a full-time player immediately in Week 1. When he was on the field in the preseason, the Chiefs looked to get him involved immediately as he logged a 31.5% target per route run rate while producing 3.26 yards per route run. Worthy could immediately explode in his first NFL game, but he has a tough task in front of him. Last year, Baltimore allowed the fifth-fewest fantasy points per game to opposing wide receivers. They were also particularly stingy to deep passing. Worthy had a 17.0 aDOT in the preseason, but it was such a small sample that we can't rush to pigeonhole him into just a field stretching role in this offense. If that is his role to start the season, though, he could find tough sledding this week against a defense that allowed the second-lowest adjusted completion rate and passer rating to deep passing. Worthy lined up in the slot on 52.6% of his preseason routes. If that holds, he will see Kyle Hamilton for most of the day (last year, he allowed only a 55.7% catch rate and 59.5 passer rating in slot coverage).