KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s a number linked with Chiefs rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy, and it’s a number that will be forever linked with Xavier Worthy: 4.21 seconds.

Less than a week into this season’s training camp, 4.21 seconds arrived.

Worthy ran a fly pattern down the sideline, and cornerback Joshua Williams uttered a sentence loud enough for nearby spectators to hear.

“That man is fast,” Williams said.

As advertised, right? That 4.21 seconds is all Worthy required to complete a 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine, and he’s the only player in league history in which that sentence reads true.

Yet there was a time — before the existence of that number, or at least public knowledge of it — in which Worthy’s speed actually caught some by surprise.

During his freshman season at the University of Texas, Worthy would regularly break through the back end of defenses because, well, they allowed him to do it. He had touchdown catches of 75, 63, 62 and 52 yards.

But then they knew. They changed the way they defended him. Take away the back end.

Sound familiar? He thought so. It’s why he referenced this during our conversation Thursday: It’s the same way NFL defenses are playing him now.

Those defenses knew before he ever stepped foot on an an NFL field — because they knew about 4.21.

“They just try to keep everything in front of them,” Worthy said. “So it’s a familiar thing for me.”

It’s familiar for the player.

It’s familiar for his team.

The deep passing game steadily evaporated from the Chiefs’ offense over the past few seasons, so much so that they came into 2024 stating their plans to revive it. During a summer practice, in fact, head coach Andy Reid actually needled quarterback Patrick Mahomes about opting for a check-down route.

A change in mindset, the coach figured, would be part of the solution.

But so would a change in personnel.

The Chiefs moved up in the NFL draft to pluck Worthy at No. 30 overall, targeting him as part of their deep-passing game solution.

He’s instead been sandwiched into this familiar absence.

We’ve reached the halfway point of the 2024 season. The Chiefs’ bye week uncharacteristically preceded Week 9, so a grind awaits on the back end of the schedule. But it still allows for our annual assessment of the Chiefs’ rookie class.

For Worthy? It’s been up and down, with some bright-spot moments.

He is eighth among rookie wideouts in catches, seventh in yards and tied for fourth in touchdowns. He’s certainly contributed, and the Chiefs see examples of growth within the routes he probably once considered uncomfortable.

But there’s not much available in the areas he’s long been comfortable. He has only two receptions on deep throws — those that travel at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage in the air — and one of them came on a busted coverage in the NFL opener.

That’s not just about Worthy, though. For all of that offseason emphasis, the Chiefs are throwing the ball downfield less frequently than ever before — only 6.2% of Mahomes’ attempts target receivers 20-plus yards downfield, per PFF data.

That’s the lowest rate in the league and the lowest of Mahomes’ career. No NFL team has completed fewer downfield shots than the Chiefs’ five.

It’s a real credit to the Chiefs’ offense that they have moved the ball more efficiently than they did a year ago without big-chunk plays being part of the equation. They operated as smoothly in their passing game last week as ever this season, and they completed zero downfield passes.

That’s not easy.

That’s not ideal, either.

They could still benefit greatly from unlocking things downfield, someway, somehow. And after the preseason injury to free-agent signing Hollywood Brown, Worthy stands as the most obvious key.

His speed flashes at the NFL level. The film demonstrates he can get open. There are positive signs, to be sure. It’s why the Chiefs have increased his target share over the last two weeks.

But offered 16 targets, he has generated only 56 yards in those two weeks. He dropped a pair of passes against the Raiders last week on third-down plays in which he appeared to be the first option.

That has to improve.

There is a lot of improve, in fact, with this rookie class — which, sure, is pretty typical.

Even as there’s a lot to like, too.

The big picture for the Chiefs’ rookies

The Chiefs are 26th in the NFL in offensive and defensive snaps allotted to their rookies, according to data compiled by Joseph Hefner.

Worthy is the only player from the 2024 draft class averaging at least 20 snaps per game.

It’s fair to note that the Chiefs pick at the back end of every round, so it’s not as though they should lead the league in this statistic.

It’s a harder task when you’re the defending Super Bowl champions, but the Chiefs have have often punched above their weight in production from their draft picks. Their third-year players, for example, are fifth in the league in snaps when compared to others in their draft class, per Hefner’s research.

So where have they lacked in production?

The middle rounds

The initial seven games haven’t produced glowing takeaways for the Chiefs’ middle-round picks.

With a notable exception: safety Jaden Hicks.

Although he hasn’t been offered a ton of playing time on defense yet, we’re starting to see him plugged into the game for a series here and there. And he might be the most important special teams player on the Chiefs’ roster.

Hicks is a good example of a general truth: What we’ve seen in the short-term from the Chiefs’ rookies isn’t what we should project to see in the long-term. The trajectory requires some patience. Hicks has a bright future in this league, and with Justin Reid in the final year of his contract, that future in Kansas City could come swiftly.

The jury’s out on a few others.

Second-rounder Kingsley Suamataia won the left tackle job of out training camp, but he was benched in the fourth quarter against the Bengals in Week 2 in favor of Wanya Morris.

Even as Morris’ play has been uneven, the Chiefs haven’t been eager to return to Suamataia and give him another chance. I still think that comes eventually, but while I would’ve once told you that meant this season, that’s less certain now.

Fourth-round tight end Jared Wiley impressed at the onset of training camp, but he has all of one catch for seven yards this season.

A lot of time left. We’re midway through the NFL schedule in 2024, but that’s just half a season into four-year contracts. These aren’t final conclusions. That ought to be obvious.

But they aren’t meaningless, either.

The diamonds in the rough

The Chiefs have mastered making use of the back half of the draft. Isiah Pacheco, Jaylen Watson, Nazeeh Johnson and Nick Allegretti were seventh-round picks; Trey Smith was plucked in the sixth, Mike Danna in the fifth.

They’re good at this.

Which makes this next statistic stand out: The Chiefs have gotten zero offensive and defensive snaps from their fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round choices this year. Hunter Nourzad (5th) has seen limited time on special teams only; Kamal Hadden (6th) was cut out of training camp. And C.J. Hanson (7th) has yet to play.

The Chiefs, however, have still found some unexpected talent.

With their undrafted class.

They signed running back Carson Steele as an undrafted free agent, and his 58.5% success rate on rushing plays is better than all non-quarterbacks in the entire league. Two early-season fumbles removed him from a starting role after Pacheco’s injury, but Steele is clearly talented. We haven’t heard the last from him.

And Chris Roland-Wallace, another undrafted pickup, has emerged lately as a preferred choice at slot cornerback. After playing just one defensive snap in the Chiefs’ first five games, Roland-Wallace had a key interception against the 49ers, and then played 31 snaps last week.

That’s some fine work.

And plenty of learning curves elsewhere.

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