The Chiefs won their second straight Super Bowl at the end of the 2023 season, but they entered the playoffs as the third seed in the AFC because of how their offense performed in the regular season.
In a press conference on Tuesday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes said the team “felt like we didn’t play our best football” throughout the regular season and he said that was particularly true of the offense’s performance. A lack of production at wide receiver was seen as one of the biggest issues and the team’s plan to avoid similar struggles this year included signing Hollywood Brown and drafting Xavier Worthy in the first round.
Worthy missed time in the spring with a hamstring injury, but Mahomes said on Tuesday that the rookie won’t be treated with kid gloves as training camp practices get underway.
“There’s no easing,” Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “He’s going to have to be ready to go. We got a lot of competition on this offense. He got a lot of mental work in these last few weeks that he had during OTAs and minicamp, but it’s time to go now. Y’all saw it with Rashee [Rice] last year and some of the throwing-up days he had. We’re going to push you to the limit and prepare yourself to be ready to go for the season. That’s not just him. That’s everybody and everybody has to have that mentality when they come into camp.”
Rice wound up becoming a reliable target for Mahomes, but his offseason legal troubles could result in a suspension and that would make a quick transition for Worthy all the more important to the Chiefs.