{"id":112025,"date":"2025-06-07T20:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/112025\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T20:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T20:34:10","slug":"xavier-worthy-could-take-over-as-chiefs-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/112025\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Worthy Could Take Over As Chiefs’ PR"},"content":{"rendered":"

2024 first-rounder Xavier Worthy<\/a> established himself as a dynamic offensive playmaker as a rookie, and the Chiefs are hoping he can translate that into success on special teams this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cHe\u2019s the best punt returner nobody knows about right now in the league,\u201d said special teams coordinator Dave Toub (via Ed Easton Jr. of Chiefs Wire<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Kansas City originally planned for Worthy to be their primary punt returner last season before Rashee Rice<\/a>\u2018s injury pressed the rookie into a full-time role on offense. Worthy dazzled with 742 yards and nine touchdowns on 79 touches during the regular season before pacing the league in the playoffs with 19 receptions for 287 yards and three touchdowns. He finished the year without a single snap on special teams, though he had experience returning punts in college. The former Texas Longhorn led the SEC with 22 returns, 371 yards, and 16.9 yards per return in 2023.<\/p>\n

Toub is expecting a \u201cgreat battle\u201d for the Chiefs\u2019 punt returning job this summer. Other contenders include 2024 UDFA wide receiver Nikko Remigio<\/a>, who took over the role after Mecole Hardman<\/a> landed on injured reserve in December<\/a>, and rookie running back Brashard Smith<\/a>, who only returned five punts in college but has a strong history as a kick returner.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemigio continues to get better, and he will be a hard guy to beat out,\u201d said Toub, who praised the second-year wideout\u2019s \u201cball reads\u201d and \u201ccatching ability.\u201d Remigio returned 14 punts for 161 yards as a rookie across the Chiefs\u2019 final eight games of the year (including the posteason).<\/p>\n

Toub also mentioned Smith\u2019s \u201ctop-end speed\u201d as a reason for his candidacy. The 22-year old ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at the Combine after racked up 1,295 kick return yards in his four college seasons, including an ACC-high 579 yards and 29.0 YPR while at Miami in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2024 first-rounder Xavier Worthy established himself as a dynamic offensive playmaker as a rookie, and the Chiefs are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[3285,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,24174,1080],"class_list":{"0":"post-112025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-brashard-smith","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nikko-remigio","17":"tag-xavier-worthy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114643996875488782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}