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Answering big questions on second-year NFL wide receivers | ESPN
Was the Super Bowl an omen forXavier Worthy?
In the first half of the 2024 season, the Chiefs were trying to use Worthy as a downfield receiver, and it was not working. Through Weeks 1-12, Worthy averaged 11.9 air yards per target and was catching only 51.9% of his passes. Kansas City’s first-rounder struggled to find the football in the air and catch through contact.
Necessity became the mother of invention, and as the Chiefs’ running game plummeted in effectiveness, they began using Worthy as an underneath target and even a ball carrier on reverses and jet sweeps to create some easy explosives while also moving the sticks. Worthy’s depth of target tumbled; from Week 13 through the conference championship game, his air yards per target was 5.5 — less than half his previous figure — and his catch rate accordingly rose to 73.7%. Worthy also had 11 carries in the first 12 weeks of the season, then 12 in the final seven. (Worthy finished the regular season with 638 receiving yards and six TD catches.)
Entering the Super Bowl, the Worthy role felt clear: screens, sweeps, reverses and shallow crosses. Get the ball into his hands and use his acceleration — not his deep speed — as an asset to break defenders’ tackle angles and create first downs.
Assuming Rashee Rice returns to the starting lineup after his knee injury and reclaims his demand of shallow and intermediate targets — where he was at his best in 2023 and 2024 — then Worthy will suddenly need to deliver on his downfield promise. It’s easy to forget because of the happy note he landed on, but Worthy’s minus-9.6% catch rate above expectation was the worst number among all receivers during the 2024 regular season (per NFL Next Gen Stats). He was not making big grabs for much of the year, and he has to pick up where he left off in New Orleans.
NFL top-10 rankings: Commanders ahead of Chiefs ... but can either catch Eagles? | FOX Sports
4. Kansas City Chiefs: As long as No. 15 steps onto the field, the Chiefs are a contender. Patrick Mahomes, a two-time MVP, will need to uplift an offense with a fading No. 1 option (Travis Kelce) and a collection of inconsistent (Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster) and unproven (Xavier Worthy, and Jalen Royals) playmakers on the perimeter. It will be crucial for those pass-catchers to step up as Rashee Rice tries to recover from the torn ACL he suffered in Week 4 last season. With Rice’s status up in the air, a rebuilt offensive line in front of Mahomes and fewer blue-chip players in place, the Chiefs could quickly drop down this list once the season kicks off in September.
Takeaways from 2025 NFL schedule news | Yardbarker
The only team TV executives may love more than the Cowboys are the Chiefs
Have the Chiefs, who have won two Super Bowls over the past three seasons, supplanted the Cowboys as the league’s most popular team?
Their 27-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens last season set an NFL Kickoff Game ratings record with an average audience of 28.9 million viewers, via Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis.
According to Nielsen, Kansas City’s 40-22 loss to the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX drew an average audience of 127.7 million viewers, the largest for a Super Bowl.
ToThechedule makers have already slated the Chiefs for two massive matchups. to capitalize on their booming popularityExpect Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes and Co. to be in more high-profile games when the full schedule drops.
2025 offseason grades for all 32 NFL teams | PFF
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: B
Trading Joe Thuney (80.0 PFF overall grade) was not ideal, but the Chiefs will hope Kingsley Suamataia (37.9 PFF overall grade) can fill in at guard better than he did at tackle. New signing Jaylon Moore, who felt like an overpay, could start at tackle while first-round pick Josh Simmons gets his knee ready.
Kansas City’s draft was filled with scheme fits, and they retained Trey Smith and Nick Bolton. The receiver room could be better, but getting Rashee Rice back will help.
Kansas City Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar sentenced to 32 years for Oklahoma bank robbery | The Athletic
Notorious Kansas City Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar was sentenced to 32 years in prison by an Oklahoma judge Monday, two months after he pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a teachers credit union in Tulsa, Okla.
Babudar, known as “ChiefsAholic,” had already been sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison by a federal court for a string of bank robberies committed across seven states in 2022-23. His new sentence will run concurrently, meaning he will serve another 14 1/2 years in Oklahoma after his federal term ends. Prosecutors said Babudar used the money from his robberies to finance trips to Kansas City Chiefs games.
Babudar, once a fixture at Chiefs games who was known for wearing a gray wolf suit, pleaded guilty to the Tulsa robbery on March 24, 2025.
His criminal saga began in December 2022 when he was arrested for a Bixby, Okla., robbery and released on bond under GPS monitoring. But by March 2023, Babudar cut off the ankle monitor and vanished before the FBI arrested him in California. In 2024, Babudar admitted to stealing more than $800,000 from banks in 11 robberies across seven states and laundering the money through casinos.
Chiefs fans might want to save these receipts after latest Super Bowl odds| Arrowhead Addict
Current Super Bowl odds place Chiefs behind two other AFC contenders
If you look at the current betting odds for the winner of Super Bowl LX, the Kansas City Chiefs are not listed as the top team in the AFC. They do not even have the second-best odds in the AFC currently. On both DraftKings and FanDuel, the Chiefs are seen as the third-best option in the conference to take home the next Lombardi Trophy.
Each of the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills are viewed as having slightly better odds to win it all. DraftKings places Kansas City at +750 to win the Super Bowl next year. That sportsbook has both the Ravens and the Bills at +700 right now. As for FanDuel, they have Baltimore (+700 odds) staggered just ahead of Buffalo (+750 odds). Eventually, they put the Chiefs at +800 to be Super Bowl LX champions.
Around the NFL
2025 NFL schedule release: International Games on NFL Network | NFL.com
Washington Commanders vs Miami Dolphins
WHERE: Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (Madrid, Spain)
WHEN: Week 11 | Nov. 16 | 9:30 a.m. ET
HOW TO WATCH: NFL Network, NFL+
The final game of the 2025 international slate will be the NFL’s debut in Spain, and it’s a matchup that could bring fireworks.
Coming off a storybook season with Jayden Daniels at the helm, the Commanders invested in their promising young quarterback this offseason. Deebo Samuel joins Terry McLaurin to upgrade Daniels’ pass-catching arsenal and stalwart left tackle Laremy Tunsil will bolster the protection for 2024’s Offensive Rookie of the Year. Meanwhile, the Dolphins saw an underwhelming 2024 season, but the cast of characters which produced an exciting offense the prior two seasons remain. Mike McDaniel’s high-flying scheme returns the core of that once effective offense with Tua Tagovailoa throwing to his speedy wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle . If Miami’s revamped offensive line is up to the task — especially against Washington’s ferocious defensive front — the NFL’s debut in Spain could be a high-scoring affair.
NFL Travel Mileage Totals for All 32 Teams Ahead of 2025 NFL Schedule Release | Bleacher Report
NFL 2025-26 MILES TRAVELED
The 32 NFL teams will cover a total of 625,947 miles this season, averaging 19,561 per team, and 2,301 per trip. 6 NFL teams will travel more miles than it takes to go around the world.
Full Story, Team-By-Team Breakdown https://t.co/Fy1rsB6x1I pic.twitter.com/6pZY8ZjNTE
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) May 13, 2025
At the other end of the spectrum, the Cincinnati Bengals will travel a league-low 8,753 miles, which is nearly 2,000 miles less than the Buffalo Bills, who will travel the second-shortest distance at 10,546 miles.
Teams located on the West Coast typically have the most travel on a yearly basis since there are far more East Coast teams in the NFL.
Because of that, it comes as little surprise that four of the five teams with the most cumulative miles traveled in 2025 will be from the West in the form of the Chargers, Rams, Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.
The Chargers’ and Rams’ travel numbers are also inflated by the fact that both teams are set to play international games this season.
As announced by the NFL on Tuesday, the Chargers will host a game against a yet-to-be-announced opponent in São Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 5. The Chargers’ opponent will be officially revealed Wednesday, but Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com (h/t Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio) reported that the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Bolts in that game.
As for the Rams, they will take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Oct. 19. With the exception of 2020 when there were no international games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jaguars have played in at least one game in London every year since 2013.
The Jags are the only non-West-Coast team in the top five for most miles traveled in 2025, as their 29,006 miles of travel rank fourth.
Vikings get back-to-back international games in different countries | ESPN
As part of its 2025 international games slate unveiled Tuesday, the NFL announced that the Vikings will play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 28 at Croke Park in Dublin, marking the league’s first regular-season game in Ireland.
The Vikings will then travel to England, where they will face the Cleveland Browns at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Oct. 5.
“Playing in Ireland’s first-ever NFL game is an opportunity to introduce new fans to the Minnesota Vikings and help the league continue to make the game of football more accessible globally,” Vikings owner Mark Wilf said in a statement. “To do so against a storied franchise like the Pittsburgh Steelers adds a unique challenge that makes this even more special. We are honored to be selected for this historic game and will be anxious to see what promises to be an electric game day environment in Croke Park.”
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
Chiefs Roster: Penn State’s Coziah Izzard has a strong athletic profile
Player profile
Izzard is slightly undersized to play defensive tackle in the NFL, but he makes up for it with a great blend of athletic ability.
At 6’2” and 298 lbs., he isn’t a load or a space-eating defensive tackle, but his solid testing numbers in all categories show a player with the needed explosion and strength to play at the professional level.
A regular contributor through four seasons at Penn State, Izzard has seen high levels of college competition and was a mainstay in the front seven rotation.
Izzard played primarily as a 3-technique in college, but could be rotated into other spots along the line based on down and distance.
Finishing his college career with nine sacks and 21 tackles for loss, Izzard’s production wasn’t tremendous, but with his athletic tools and film, he was a player worth taking a shot on post-draft.
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