The road to success for the LA Chargers inevitably has to go through the Kansas City Chiefs, regardless of how long that road may be. Kansas City is the best team in the league bar none and the Chargers have the unfortunate reality of playing in the same division.
The Chiefs are not unbeatable and with a new head coach running the show in Jim Harbaugh, the Chargers may have their best chance yet of challenging for the Chiefs' throne. It won't be an easy proposition, though, as beating the Chiefs involves beating the best head coach and quarterback in the sport.
Los Angeles should be gathering any information possible from training camp and the preseason to start formulating a game plan against Kansas City. Granted, the No. 1 priority is figuring out the roster, but it is not a bad thing to keep information stored away for a future matchup.
And on Wednesday, the Chiefs unintentionally gave the Chargers (and any team, for that matter) some information on rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. The Chiefs' defense played press coverage on Worthy during team drills and the results were far from pretty.
Xavier Worthy against press. pic.twitter.com/SbvC66qCiU
— Boorish (@Boorish_Sports) July 31, 2024
Chargers know how to slow down Xavier Worthy in future matchup
Of course, one clip of a player during training camp is not enough to develop an entire scouting report. However, this clip of Worthy getting tossed around by the defense does go hand-in-hand with the perception around him coming into the league.
Worthy ran the fastest 40-yard dash in NFL Combine history earlier this year as he is someone who can undoubtedly take the top off a defense when he gets into the open field. For many scared fans, this created Tyreek Hill flashbacks.
But the knock against Worthy (and why he ultimately was not one of the elite wide receivers in the draft) is his size and physicality. Worthy is 5-foot-11 and weighed in at 165 pounds at the combine. At that size, Worthy is begging to be tossed around by the defense.
Thus, the Chargers know what they need to do to stop Worthy in a future matchup. Playing press coverage against Hill was a recipe for disaster for many years but that is not the case for Worthy. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter can comfortably play press on Worthy, instructing his defense backs to use their physicality to half him at the line of scrimmage.
Slowing Worthy down with one-on-one press coverage is going to be imperative if the Chargers want any success against Kansas City. The Chiefs have better weapons than a year ago with Worthy and Marquise Brown on the team, so stopping Worthy with just one player allows the Bolts to focus on slowing down Brown and Travis Kelce with scheme.
Thankfully, the Chiefs did not get the chance to sign the Pro Bowl wide receiver who was considering teaming up with Mahomes, or else this would have been a trickier proposition. But for now, Chargers fans can at least dream up one scenario where the team can slow down Kansas City's offense.