Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy leads Week 1 splashes while Marvin Harrison Jr. struggles

National Football League

Published Sep. 10, 2024 9:09 a.m. ET

This year’s rookie class includes seven receivers taken in the first round of the 2024 draft and 10 in the first 40 picks, but none had a bigger debut than Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy, who scored two touchdowns in their opening win over the Ravens. That’s more than the four receivers drafted ahead of him combined.

“He’s so cool, calm and collected like all the time,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of the former Texas standout. “You never even see the excitement on him, but he goes up there and makes plays. Obviously, we want to continue to use him more and more. I thought he had a great day making big plays in big moments.”

Worthy, best known for running a record 40-yard time of 4.21 seconds at the NFL Combine, put that speed on display on his first NFL touch, a reverse that went 21 yards for Kansas City’s first touchdown of 2024. In a close game late, he added another score on a 35-yard pass from Mahomes in the fourth quarter.

“It was crazy. We ran that in the preseason and I fumbled,” Worthy said of his first score. “For them to have that trust in me, I told [offensive coordinator Matt] Nagy that I think this play is going to score and it happened. It was an amazing moment, my first touch being a touchdown in the NFL.”

Worthy was one of four rookies to score touchdowns in their NFL debuts this week, along with the Jaguars‘ Brian Thomas Jr., the Chargers‘ Ladd McConkey and the Bucs‘ Jalen McMillan.

It was a much quieter debut for the first receiver taken in April, Arizona‘s Marvin Harrison Jr., the fourth overall pick. Kyler Murray threw 31 passes in a loss to the Bills, but only three of them went to Harrison, who finished with one catch for four yards. All expectations are that Harrison will be an elite receiver, but sometimes it’s not an immediate impact.

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Welcome to our NFL Rookie Report, where each week we’ll highlight the best — and worst — of the league’s 250-plus rookies, from high-profile first-round picks to undrafted gems.

Not much yardage for rookie QBs

For all the excitement surrounding three rookie quarterbacks starting in Week 1, Chicago’s Caleb Williams, Washington‘s Jayden Daniels and Denver‘s Bo Nix struggled to find passing yardage at near-record levels.

Williams had 29 pass attempts for just 93 yards, and Nix had 42 attempts for only 138 yards, giving them 3.2 and 3.3 yards per attempt. To find a rookie quarterback with a lower average in a Week 1 game, you have to go all the way back to 2001, when the Cowboys‘ Quincy Carter went 9-for-19 for 34 yards, averaging less than 2 yards per pass. That was two months before Williams was born.

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Nix’s inefficiency goes beyond rookie struggles: It’s just the third game in NFL history in which any quarterback had at least 42 attempts and threw for 138 yards or fewer. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger threw for 123 on 46 attempts in a game in the final month of his career, and the Giants‘ Jesse Palmer threw for 110 on 43 attempts in a 2003 game.

Better days are ahead, of course.

Giants, Cowboys get biggest impact from rookies

Which NFL teams got the most snaps on offense and defense from their rookies in Week 1? The Giants led the way with 287 snaps — receiver Malik Nabers and safety Tyler Nubin played every snap, and tight end Theo Johnson had 61 snaps as well. Even sixth-round linebacker Darius Muasau had a strong debut, getting New York’s only interception and finishing second with six tackles.

Dallas was close behind as first-rounder Tyler Guyton played every snap at left tackle, and third-rounder Cooper Beebe played all but one snap at center. There was help on defense as well: Second-round defensive end Marshawn Kneeland played 44 snaps with three tackles, and corner Caelen Carson played 60 snaps with four tackles and two passes defensed.

At the other extreme? Atlanta, with four draft picks inactive, got zero offensive or defensive snaps from its rookie class, though linebacker JD Bertrand played some on special teams. The Browns had just two rookie snaps, from offensive lineman Zak Zinter.

Introducing …

For all the high-drafted rookie receivers, the one who had the most catches in Week 1 was a 26-year-old seventh-round pick. Denver’s Devaughn Vele, who went on a two-year mission before playing five seasons at Utah, dropped in the draft because of his age. He’s older than some of his Broncos teammates in their fifth NFL season.

But on Sunday, the 6-foot-4 receiver stepped up in a big way, catching eight passes on eight targets from Nix for 39 yards. The yardage wasn’t anything great, but still one more yard than starter Courtland Sutton had on 12 targets in the same game.

Where are the rookie running backs?

A year ago, Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs were drafted in the top 12 picks and were immediate impact players, but this year’s class of rookie running backs didn’t have the same splash.

Bucs rookie Bucky Irving, a fourth-round pick from Oregon, had a nice debut Sunday with 62 yards on nine carries, but that was more rushing yards than all the other drafted rookies combined. There were 19 running backs drafted, but nobody else had more than 14 yards in his NFL debut.

Four of the top five running backs didn’t get so much as an offensive snap. Carolina’s Jonathon Brooks is on injured reserve, Green Bay’s MarShawn Lloyd and Miami’s Jaylen Wright were inactive for Week 1, and the Rams‘ Blake Corum was limited to nine snaps on special teams, so the only one of the five to get a real look on offense was Arizona’s Trey Benson, who had 13 yards on three carries.

Special-teams impacts

Sometimes, rookies can make their first splash on special teams. Consider undrafted rookie Brandon Codrington from North Carolina Central, who returned three punts and one kickoff for touchdowns in college. He showed enough in preseason that the Bills gave the Jets a 2026 pick swap to acquire him, and he had a 53-yard kickoff return in Sunday’s win over Arizona.

Best rookie punter? Hard to argue with Bengals punter Ryan Rehkow, who averaged 64.5 yards on four punts, including an 80-yarder. He was cut by the Chiefs in June and signed with Cincinnati as training camp started in July. As for kickers, five teams (Packers, Rams, Jaguars, Chargers, Colts) have rookies and Detroit has a first-year kicker in Jake Bates. In their first NFL games, they went a combined 15-for-15 on extra points and 8-for-9 on field goals.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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