Why Texas' Xavier Worthy fits right in with Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs | Golden

The Chiefs Way.

It’s something that rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy will become accustomed to soon enough in Kansas City.

When the Chiefs moved up in the NFL draft to select Texas' star wide receiver with the 28th pick, the first thing that came to mind was fit.

This pairing feels right, on the field and off.

The Chiefs do it the right way because their head coach, Andy Reid, is one of the best football minds in the business and he adds that perfect blend of humanity and humor to his knowledge of the game.

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If you want an example of good fortune, here you have it. Worthy, the fastest receiver in college football, as evidenced by his record 4.21 time in the 40 at the NFL scouting combine, has gone from a great college football environment to the best-run organization in professional sports. Add to it that Patrick Mahomes, at 28, is already an all-time great who hasn't had a deep threat of this sort since Tyreek Hill left two years ago.

Name me one wide receiver who doesn’t want to play for Reid and catch passes from Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t love football.

“Everybody’s dream is to play with Patrick Mahomes, who’s one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time,” Worthy said. “So just to be able to play with him, everybody talks about it, but I’ve been saying it for a while, ‘I’m going to be a Chief.’ So I just it put it in the air, and now I’m here. It’s amazing.”

Xavier Worthy should fit right in with Chiefs

To that end, I had to ask former Texas stars Derrick Johnson and Alex Okafor about the upside of Worthy to Kansas City, since both played there.

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Johnson played 13 seasons for the Chiefs, five of them with Reid. The franchise’s all-time leader in tackles was a teammate of Mahomes' for the quarterback's rookie season in 2013, when the youngster was playing backup to Alex Smith. Johnson, who was a locker room leader, understands the value of team chemistry when adding new pieces. He believes Worthy and Kansas City are a great match.

“The locker room that (Reid) has created is one of a kind,” Johnson told me. “The high-character players set in place to make it a player-led team is probably one of the best in the league.”

Worthy hopes to make a quick impression

Worthy and DeSean Jackson are similar players in size and background. Both grew up in California, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound Worthy in Fresno and the 5-10, 175-pound Jackson in Long Beach. Under Reid in Philadelphia, Jackson, a second-round pick out of Cal, became one of the league’s most feared scoring threats, both in the Eagles’ deep passing attack and in the punt return game. Jackson retired with a league-record 26 touchdowns of 60-plus yards.

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With Worthy, the Chiefs are getting a blazer who will bring a needed dimension to an offense that was the least explosive of the Reid-Mahomes era. Kansas City had only 21 passing plays of 40-plus yards in the past two seasons combined. The 2019 champs had a league-leading 18.

Methinks the previous long-distance struggles are about to change.

“Xavier will fit in just fine, especially when it comes to drawing up plays that will highlight his speed,” Johnson said. “Andy will probably use him like DeSean Jackson in Philly. They are very similar players.”

Former Longhorn a good locker room fit in Kansas City

Worthy came from a place where coach Steve Sarkisian strived to make the Longhorns a more player-led team. There were struggles at first, but the past two seasons produced a total of 20 wins, a Big 12 title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Reid went straight to an important source while considering drafting Worthy.

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“Coach Sarkisian and I are close,” he told reporters on draft night. “He kept talking about how smart (Worthy) was. He's got great football instincts, and he's a tremendous worker. In this offense, you've got to be able to do that and have those characteristics."

Worthy played in a relatively healthy locker room environment these past two seasons — no team is without some issues — and is joining a place renowned for being reflective of the two most important people in the organization, the head coach and the star quarterback.

“Xavier is going to love it out there in Kansas City,” said Okafor, who played the final three of his nine seasons with the Chiefs, notching five sacks for the 2019 Super Bowl champs. Before every game, Big Red would tell us to let our personalities show. That just reminds us to always have fun playing the sport and to stay true to ourselves.”

Joining the best quarterback in the business

Could Worthy pick a better quarterback to play with? Absolutely not.

Mahomes has Kansas City — and the whole world, for that matter — at his fingertips. While he prepares himself and the locker room for what would be the first Super Bowl three-peat in league history — the Green Bay Packers had two three-peats as NFL champions, only one of which included part of the Super Bowl era — he is obviously enjoying the perks that come with being the most popular football player on the planet.

He appeared this week on WWE’s "Monday Night Raw" ringside in Kansas City with Chiefs offensive linemen Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith, hung out with U.S. champion Logan Paul backstage, and then became part of the show when he loaned Paul what appeared to be his three Super Bowl rings to use as weapons in the ring. The crowd went nuts after Mahomes and two of his most trusted blockers faced off later against 6-8, 385-pound Braun Strowman, billed as the Monster of Men, from their ringside seats.

Xavier Worthy's prediction came true

Mahomes' newest weapon believed from the beginning of last season that he would be a Chief, and somehow it happened.

“Everyone thought the rest of the NFL was never going to let the Chiefs get to me, but I’m here,” Worthy said. “I’m excited to get to play with Pat, and seeing the success that Tyreek Hill had with this offense, I feel like it’s amazing.”

There are different paths to the same goal, but Reid has shown that his brand of offensive ingenuity and overall player empowerment has made Kansas City the epicenter of NFL success.

Worthy could not have landed in a better spot.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Why Xavier Worthy fits for Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City