‘There’s no excuse for me’ — Chiefs TE Travis Kelce shoulders blame for the collision that caused WR Xavier Worthy’s Week 1 injury
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce took full responsibility for the mistake on the play that injured WR Xavier Worthy in Week 1.
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce opened up about the collision with Xavier Worthy in the Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Speaking with his brother, Jason Kelce, on their weekly “New Heights” podcast, Travis dove into the play that ultimately took Worthy out of the game with a dislocated shoulder.
“I’ll take the most accountability myself,” Travis said, at risk of sounding like a broken record on the heels of Super Bowl LIX. “I wasn’t ready that first drive. I ran into one of my guys, and (took) him out of the game. 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.”
The concept of that play is essentially a natural rub route based on the depth of the routes run, but that’s just when things go according to plan. Travis told Jason that it was up to him to ensure he was running his route at a depth where a collision wouldn’t occur.
“I’m supposed to be running my route at depth for (Xavier) Worthy,” Travis said. “So it’s, it’s frustrating for me. I was trying to kind of set up my guy to be able to get in a position to, and it all just happened pretty quick, and I just got to be better, man. I’m 13 years in the league. There’s no excuse for me running into my own guys like that and being able to play fast and help him out where they had his guy beat, and we’re out the gate, and that game starts completely different, right?”
The injury to Xavier Worthy threw Travis Kelce off for the first half of the game
That one play had a lasting impact on Chiefs TE Travis Kelce, not just because he took out a player heavily involved in the game plan, but because he was left wondering about his well-being throughout the first half.
“I owe my guy big time,” Travis said. “Man, X (Xavier Worthy) knows it. I felt like shit. I could barely even fucking play the rest of that first half, man, but we geared it up once I found out that that he was, you know, in better spirits than I than I imagined at halftime. So, just try to go back out there and win that thing for him.”
The veteran tight end was held to one reception for just 10 yards in the first half, but he was able to kick things up a notch after halftime, like he said. He was targeted three times, managing a single reception, which was a 37-yard touchdown.
Jason compared the injury to that of Eagles FB Ben VanSumeren, in the sense that a significant injury takes the air out of the room. Travis felt this one a little more, knowing it was avoidable, and just how important Worthy is to the team overall.
“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,” Travis 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. 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. Thankfully enough, we had (Tyquan) 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.”
The Chiefs did have players who stepped up in his absence, including Brown, Thornton, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, but it wasn’t enough to overcome all of the issues the team faced throughout the game. Kelce’s collision with Worthy on offense wasn’t the only player-on-player collision that occurred for Kansas City in Week 1.
“It’s just a frustrating, frustrating way to start off the season,” Travis said. “A frustrating way to start off the game. But you could take some good from that second half, but at the end of the day, we just got to be able to win up front, be accountable on the back end, and be able to start fast and finish stronger.”
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