Xavier Worthy scouting report: Exploring the Texas WR's strengths and weaknesses
A top-100 overall recruit in 2021, Xavier Worthy immediately made his mark with the Longhorns, with 63 grabs for 998 yards and 12 touchdowns, becoming a first-team All-Big 12 selection as a true freshman. He put up slightly lesser numbers in year two (60-760-nine) but still repeated those honors.
This past season, Xavier Worthy cracked the 1000-yard mark and reached the end-zone six times, including one as a punt returner – where he averaged 16.9 yards per attempt – as he made first-team all-conference at both spots.
Details: 5-foot-11, 165 pounds; JR.
Breaking down Xavier Worthy's scouting report
Releases & route-running:
- Literally has record-breaking speed with his 4.21 40-yard dash (along with a 41-inch vertical at the combine)
- Brings the easy acceleration to blow by corners if you leave him one-on-one, but also dust deep safeties who try to play him flat-footed – Had a massive average depth of target at 17.6 yards per in 2022, before being used on more designed touches to lower that number last season
- Excels at reducing the near-shoulder to his defender and not getting the terms of the route dictated to him by physical cover-guys
- Also utilizes a well-timed swipe down at times as he’s trying to release outside on corners
- Does a tremendous job of widening his man and luring them in comfort before kicking into top gear and just running away from them as he bends it down the post
- Runs some nasty deep out routes, where he sells the inside take-off to the post momentarily and then is able to break it off to the sideline with one dramatic wider step and then getting his hips flipped
- Sudden with the way he can whip around those hips and break towards the middle of the field
- Creates multiple yards of separation on some slant routes, by aiming at his defender’s outside hips with the first three steps and violently jamming his foot into the turf
Ball-tracking, positioning & catching:
- Has clearly worked on his ability to track the deep ball and you see him stay focused to haul in passes where he has to look straight up in the air
- You now see him reach out at the last moment and get his pinkies together as he allows the ball to drop into the bread-basket, also not allowing defender to play through his mitts
- Has become much better at dealing with defenders raking at the ball as he runs slant routes for example
- Does well to turn his body away from driving defenders as he secures the catch with his feet off the ground
- Fundamentally sound on screen passes and quick game, to get his fingertips together for overhand technique whilst already opening his hip upfield, in order to transition into YAC mode
- On the first play of his Red River Rivalry debut against Oklahoma, Xavier Worthy caught a simple bubble screen, made a couple of defenders miss and took it 75 yards to the house, And he was far from done, catching a total of nine balls for 261 yards, including another TD – That marked the start of regular big performances against the top competition
Run after catch & blocking:
- With his speed, Worthy can kill pursuit angles in a hurry if he gets the ball on the run and accesses that next gear
- The way he can vary speeds and hit defenders with sudden bursts in the open field makes him devastating to corral
- Will hit some step- or jump-backs to badly make defenders whiff as they barrel down on him
- Then when he’s in break-away mode, he can slice inside of safeties angling towards him charging up the sideline, to turn them around in a way they can’t recover from
- Bounces off more big hits than you’d expect and stays alive as a ball-carrier
- Steve Sarkisian made it a bigger priority to draw up designed touches for Worthy on screen passes, as the threat in the flats off orbit motion and sweeps/end-arounds
- Off that, he can be a positive contributor in the run game, without having to touch the ball or put his hands on defenders
Weaknesses:
- Didn’t face a ton of press coverage, yet when he did physical DBs were able to throw off his routes and lock him up at times
- Dropped seven(!) passes in 2022, including some blatant ones on deep balls, which legitimately took touchdowns off the board – five more last season
- His contested catch rate has decreased all three years with the Longhorns, with an 34.1% mark for his career, which in part is due to defenders being able to reach around his slender frame and knock down passes
- Still has plenty of room to set up his blockers more effectively and force defenders to commit to one side as they’re approaching them on designed touches, while his YAC-ability is largely based on his speed
- A non-factor as a blocker pretty much, without the play-strength to latch and sustain with consistency
Xavier Worthy's 2024 NFL Draft projection
We’ve seen receivers in the past fly up draft boards for running fast and if you hit a new bench-mark with a 4.21 in the 40, you’re probably a lock for the first round. However, for a player with record-breaking speed, the fact that Xavier Worthy has only been able to haul in 15 of 67 targets of 20+ yards – whether it’s based on drops or not winning through contact – definitely hurts his profile.
So at this point, you want to use that dynamic ability with the ball already in Xavier Worthy's hands, and while he does bounce off more hits than you’d expect maybe, you do have to question how he’ll hold up taking multiple big hits per game.
With that being said, I do believe Xavier Worthy’s somebody who can shift between gears, be efficient as a route-runner to also decelerate again after threatening vertically and he’s improved his ball-tracking.
He’s unproven against press-coverage and I’d think he needs to be deployed in a role that puts him off the ball, yet I do believe he can be a field-stretching Z or slot in terms of how he threatens defenses horizontally and vertically.
Personally, I think there are more complete receivers that I’d take over Xavier Worthy past the “big three” but I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s the next name off the board.
Grade: Top 50