Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce recently expressed his remorse over a collision with his teammate, wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who injured his shoulder, in the team’s season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5 in Brazil.
“I literally took one of my players out. That’s one of the most frustrating parts, and it’s hard to get your juices back going knowing you just hurt a guy,” Kelce continued. “It’s a frustrating way to start off the season, a frustrating way to start off the game.”
Kelce didn’t run far enough during a play and collided with Worthy. The Chiefs’ second-year wideout was looked to as one of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ go-to receivers, especially with Rashee Rice serving a six-game suspension.
“I’m supposed to be running my route at depth for Worthy,” Kelce said. “So, it’s frustrating for me. I was trying to kind of set up my guy to be able to get into position, and it all just happened pretty quick.
“I just gotta be better, man. I’m 13 years in the league. There is no excuse for me running into my own guys like that,” Kelce added.
Worthy had one carry and one target at that point in the game, so the Chiefs never utilized him in the 27–21 defeat. Kelce didn’t have his best game overall in the aftermath as he only caught two passes for 47 yards and a touchdown, amid four targets from Mahomes.
“I owe my guy big time, man,” Kelce said. “X knows it. I felt like [expletive]. I could barely even ... play the rest of that first half, but we geared it up once I found out that he was in better spirits than I imagined at halftime.”
With Worthy down, the Chiefs will look to Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Tyquan Thornton for more production. Against the Chargers, Brown had 99 yards on 10 catches, Smith-Schuster had five receptions for 55 yards, and Thornton had two catches for 41 yards.
“Both are doing better; they’re working on it and making progress. But they’re not ready to go today, for sure,” Reid told reporters.
Reid wouldn’t give any further information on the injury recoveries, but in Worthy’s case, he hasn’t ended up on injured reserve yet either. Kelce expressed his hope on the podcast.
“I’m not sure where he is exactly in terms of health-wise, but I’m hoping that we get them back as fast as possible, because he means so much to this team,” Kelce said. “I can see that guy in how hard he works, and I can see his game getting better, and I know he’s going to take the league by storm when he gets back.
“The biggest thing is that he’s one of our best players, right? He’s going to take that step into being one of the best wide receivers in the National Football League.”
As a rookie, Worthy had 59 receptions for 638 yards and six touchdowns in 2024. The Chiefs drafted the former Texas star with the No. 28 pick that year.
“And I run into him, and all of a sudden, one of the biggest pieces of the game plan is out of the game. ... One of the most valid, one of the fastest guys in the league, and speed kills in this league is, you know, now they don’t have to worry about that,” Kelce said.
“Thankfully enough, we had Thornton and Hollywood Brown to, you know, be able to step up in those situations, not that they weren’t already in the game plan, but obviously you need to fill those spots.”
