Filling the Xavier Worthy gap

Four players that can help fill the hole in the offense left by Xavier Worthy

The offense was slow going at the start of week one against the Los Angeles Chargers. The loss of second-year receiver Xavier Worthy early in the game threw a wrench in the entire game plan. You could see the Chiefs struggling to find a footing without a player who was clearly going to be featured heavily.

The Chiefs were struggling to line up at times early on. That is, presumably, because they had players lining up in spots they weren’t planning to at the start of the game.

Replacing Worthy from a volume perspective (and what appeared at times to be running plays they would have usually run to him), Hollywood Brown stepped in to the tune of 16 targets. No one else on the offense received more than five. While the offense found success as the game went on, that mix won’t be in the best interest of a good performance against the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense.

With the dust clear and a week to plan for the game without Worthy, the offense will have to adapt. The responsibility for certain functions of the offense will have to be spread across multiple players to try and help replace him in the aggregate. There is no direct replacement for Worthy, but there are players who have traits and roles they can fill to help elevate the offense.

Here are four players in line to support the offense in Worthy’s absence.

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Vertical Passing Game: Tyquan Thornton

The Chiefs’ desire to introduce a more vertically minded passing game was evident in their first week. Had Worthy not exited the game so quickly, I imagine we would have seen some things dialed up for him down the field like we did in the Super Bowl loss to the Eagles.