Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
April 25, 2024
OPENING STATEMENT: “As you saw, we picked Xavier Worthy from Texas, wide receiver. We’re glad to
have him on board. We think he’s a heck of a football player, number one. He does a few different things,
he’s a good wide receiver and also good special teams returner, and he’ll end up doing both to start things
off with. He’ll just work into that rotation when we get him – the wide receiver rotation with Hollywood
(Brown), Rashee (Rice) and (Travis) Kelce and you know the other fellas. It should give Pat (Mahomes)
another weapon there to use, and with that, time’s yours.”
Q: Can you walk us through how the trade with the Bills went?
REID: “We’ve marked this kid, Xavier (Worthy), we’ve wanted him. We felt – you start getting down there
and somebody might jump us and pick him up. (General Manager) Brett (Veach) does a great job with
this; he’s got a real good feel for the people that have interest in that position and that player and where
he needs to go to attack it.”
Q: Besides his speed, what do you like about Xavier Worthy?
REID: “He’ a good route runner, and he’s not a big kid or at least weight wise. He’s got good height. He’s
just not very heavy, but I think you’ll see this toughness that he’s got which jumped out at me. When you
talk to a coach, (Texas Head) Coach (Steve) Sarkisian and I are close and he kept talking about how smart
he was. He’s got great football instincts, and he’s a tremendous worker. And, in this offense, you have to
be able to do that and have those characteristics.”
Q: When you think of Xavier’s 40 (yard dash) time, it’s hard to not think about Tyreek Hill. How do you
think having his type of speed back on your offense will help you guys in this upcoming season?
REID: “They’re different (Tyreek Hill and Xavier Worthy), and he’ll put his own mark on things once he
gets a feel for it. That wasn’t necessarily the comparison, as much as it was him being a good football
player that was a good wide receiver. Now you add in there the return ability. I’ve had some guys like that
Tyreek, DeSean Jackson – probably body type a little more like DeSean.”
Q: How important was it to add to the wide receiver room this offseason?
REID: “I like the wide receivers we’ve got, but to add somebody with this quality I think is important or a
good move to strengthen it. I don’t want to slight the guys we have either, but he’s a nice edition, you
guys (the media) know. I mean you’ve read everything, so you know that people thought he was a quality
player. For us to be able to get him down there with the trade, I thought that was well worth it.”
Q: Is Xavier’s weight an issue?
REID: “You’re asking the wrong guy about weight. I think he’s fine where he’s at. I don’t think that’s a
problem. He’s playing at a high level, and he’s been doing this since he was a freshman. I’m not too worried
about the weight.”
Q: What else did you learn from talking with Texas’ Head Coach Steve Sarkisian?
REID: “We’ve also talked to the kid (Xavier Worthy) and I just like his makeup. I like the fact that he can
go all day and that he loves football. You know how we’re wired here, (General Manager) Brett (Veach)
makes that a real characteristic that he likes, likewise as coaches. We love that, and so you find that out
by – and you can tell he’s passionate about the sport. I think you’ll see this when you meet him. He loves
to play, and he’s good at it.”
Q: When you think about adding an offensive weapon, do you run it by Patrick?
REID: “We told Patrick (Mahomes), yeah. Patrick’s curious, he loves this. He loves this stuff, it doesn’t
matter if it’s offense or defense, he just loves the draft. He’s texting away at us, and we get back to him,
he’s great with it.”
Q: Patrick tweeted what seemed to be his approval of your draft pick, what was his feedback?
REID: “We have these iPads and you’ve got everything on it. You can get video of the kids that are in the
draft playing, so he’s looked at everybody. When he gets bored, he looks at all the guys. He’s seen them
play; I didn’t see that he posted that out there, but I know he’s probably pretty excited about it.”
Q: Has Xavier run routes with Patrick down in Texas?
REID: “I don’t think they have connected yet.”
Q: Is it harder to move up in the draft since you are back-to-back Super Bowl Champions?
REID: “It was last year. I mean we were trying to move around a little bit last year, and it was just tough.
People didn’t really want to do a whole lot. Buffalo, they have a plan, they’re pretty smart guys up there,
so they’ve got their own plan and they were willing to do something, which I appreciate.”
Q: On his contract extension.
REID: “I’m grateful to the Hunts and (Chairman and CEO) Clark (Hunt) for wanting myself here, (President)
Mark (Donovan) and (General Manager) Brett (Veach), I would start with that. My wife and I love it here.
My family likes it here, and it’s important that that’s done and now we’re moving on and getting
everything rolling here. This is a good start right now.”
Q: With Hollywood Brown and Xavier, are you trying to bring top tier speed back to your team?
REID: “Both of those two (Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy) can run well. I think both love to play the
game and are good football players. I think that that will help us. It doesn’t hurt to have down the field
speed. We’ve functioned without the great speed down the field and done well. If you have an opportunity
to get somebody that you think is a good player, just not a speed guy but a good football player, I think
you probably need to take advantage of that.”
Q: You mentioned Xavier’s toughness, how important is that for someone with his speed and how can
that help your offense?
REID: “It’s important that you have that in the National Football League, and with his size, you can go a
couple different ways with that. He plays a tough game, but I think he’s smart with it too. You don’t want
him running into a wall and hurting himself, but at the same time, there’s a time when you have to be
able to go get it. He’s done it at that level. He’s got to do it at this level. This will be another challenge for
him, but he’s shown that he can do it at Texas.”
Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach Quotes
April 25, 2024
OPENING STATEMENT: “We’re super excited today, we were able to make a small move here with Buffalo
and move from 32 to 28 and basically move down 38 spots from our third to their fourth and flop picks
there. Obviously, Xavier (Worthy) was a guy we were really excited about. We were being patient and
playing the board, and then we had the opportunity to do something there. We did it. It was important
for us to keep our picks too, so we still had some picks to work with in the next few days. Again, we’re
excited about adding Xavier to the roster here, and with that, I’ll take your questions.”
Q: Were you surprised the Bills were willing to trade with you?
VEACH: “I think everyone goes into the process with their own list of priorities of what they want to do
and what they want to accomplish, and every team constructs their team a little bit differently. I think
they had a mindset of what they wanted to do – obviously they’ve done a great job over the years, they’re
a really good organization. I’m sure it made sense to them, and I think they ended up making another
move there too. We were on our own agenda, and we saw value there – again, moving 38 spots for a guy
that we think will be a great addition to our team especially with the special teams value that he adds,
(that) was something we really factored in.”
Q: What besides Xavier Worthy’s speed did you like?
VEACH: “Just our ability to play vertical and have speed on the field at all times, having Xavier (Worthy)
and Hollywood (Brown) I think will make life easier for Travis (Kelce) and Rashee (Rice). As the season goes
on here, I think we’ll have an offense that can attack in multiple different ways and always keep defenses
guessing.”
Q: Was it a focus this offseason to improve your ability in downfield passing
VEACH: “It’s a quarterback league, and it’s a speed game. The more speed you have on the field the harder
it is for defenses to take away different elements of the game. Anytime you can add speed and add a guy
with that type of versatility, you’re going to be interested. We have a couple of guys now that I think can
keep defenses guessing. (I’m) excited about what this will do in the inside game too with Travis (Kelce)
and Rashee (Rice). We have a good thing going here. We’ve got to get these guys into camp and up and
running. Anytime you can add that type of offensive fire power – I mean 4.21 (40 time), that’s pretty legit
speed there. Another thing too, when you look at these guys and some of their success in the NFL, we
always look at how they transitioned into college, and Xavier (Worthy) was a guy who put up big numbers
as a freshman – at Texas too. (He’s) a really smart kid, can run all day, should be able to get up and running
pretty fast. As you guys know, you’ve seen it, there’s a lot of verbiage and dialogue in this offense, and it’s
extremely complicated but I think we felt really good knowing how smart he is. He projects to come in
here and be able to grasp a lot of the concepts right away.”
Q: What do you feel like you learned about Xavier Worthy in the pre-draft process?
VEACH: “Everything our scouts said, just a kid who loves football, is coachable. He’s a smaller slender guy,
but he’s super tough. We all know the value he adds in the special teams game. That’s big for us. I heard
(Head) Coach’s (Andy Reid) press conference, he talked to (University of Texas Head) Coach (Steve
Sarkisian) Sark and he reaved about him, just how quickly he picks things up and how competitive he is,
work ethic, all those things you look for. You have a dynamic playmaker with top end vertical speed, smart
and you can move him around, do different things with him. I think it was – from where we started, every
step of the way it just validated the things we thought all along.”
Q: When you decided to move up, which teams were you worried might jump you?
VEACH: “Well, you don’t know, that’s the unknown. When you get to that point, and you’re looking at – I
mean we moved down 38 spots, we still maintained picks, that’s important throughout this process. When
you get to that point, you get so close, you always second guess yourself. You don’t know, it’s easy to say
maybe you sat there, and he would have been there, but we saw teams move consistently. Actually, after
we picked, I think there was a couple of moves. You just don’t know, and I think when you have a guy you
have a vision for and you like and you have a chance to do something – especially with a pick swap it just
made sense for us. At the end of the day, we’ll move down 38 spots, and we’ll continue to navigate and
work the board. I think one of the strengths of our staff is later in the draft, so that’s why we felt good
about it.”
Q: Was there any interest in a position other than wide receiver if you had been able to move up higher?
VEACH: “I think wideout and tackle, D-line and corner. We kind of had a pretty good gage that the tackles
we liked would be gone. We were holding out a little hope there that if one of those guys got in a window,
we would have done something. The guys we were really interested in, they went, and we didn’t really
have an opportunity there. We just let the board play out and saw the value there to move down a couple
of spots, 38 spots, and then take (Xavier Worthy), we just felt like it was the right move and made sense
for us.”
Q: How much is Patrick Mahomes involved in the process of who to pick?
VEACH: “We have a unique relationship with Pat (Mahomes) and so he just by the – his competitive nature
and just his professionalism of wanting to absorb and know everything. He’ll call every now and then and
check in. The thing about Pat when you go through the process here you have some coaches that look for
specific things and they need a specific type of player. Then you have some coaches you work with where
they find the good in everybody. Pat kind of like is that type of coach where he sees the good traits in
everyone. He just talks about the guys he’s watching, how he envisions them in our offence. Certainly,
Xavier (Worthy) is one of those guys. He had a lot of positive things to say about a lot of wideouts. I know
Xavier Worthy is right at the top of his list. I’m sure he was at the top of a lot of teams’ lists. There were
some really good wideouts that went early and shortly afterwards, we liked all of those guys. I think for
our offense just clearing up the middle of the field – then the return game again was super important for
us, so just made a lot of sense to us.”
Q: You mentioned that he is a smaller guy. Does he need to bulk up a little bit?
VEACH: “I think he’ll have to continue to grow and get stronger, he’s a young kid. Again, I think when
those guys that can go from a high school level right to the University of Texas and spit out almost 1,000
yards as a freshman. Those guys typically can adjust and adapt quickly. Anyone at any position, once you
get to this level there will be a continual growth and maturation process. We’ll have him with our dietitian
and our weight staff. We’re not going to make him 200 pounds, but also keep him at the 175-180 mark I
think will be a heathy weight for him. It will all make sense, and like I said, all these guys are going to have
to get bigger and stronger just from the marathon of the season, just to survive more games.”
Q: This being the first time you have taken a wide receiver in the first round what was the sense of
excitement in the draft room?
VEACH: “I think we just stick to our board and take guys we think can come in and play. We didn’t enter
today saying, ‘We have to have a wideout.’ We looked at our roster and there were a lot of positions that
made sense for us, O-line, corner, you can never have enough defensive linemen, receiver. It was one of
those things where O-linemen went off the board quick, and we were looking in that direction. Once the
picks went on and we had an opportunity to just make a pick flow and secure a guy that we think can
come in and absorb the playbook right away, help us on special teams. It made sense for us. I don’t think
we came into the day saying we had to have a specific position. We just wanted to see if we could get a
guy that could come in and help us right away. We’ve obviously had a lot of success, and we’re a veteran
team. We need these guys to come in and play and help us. The ability that we felt he could grasp the
offense and come in right away, that was probably the motivating factor for us to make sure we got him
before we got hopped by potentially someone else.”
Q: What were your thoughts on Xavier Worthy before he ran the 4.21 40-yard time at the Combine?
VEACH: “I think everyone knew he was fast. When he ran the time – we kind of thought, ‘We’ll we’re
picking last in the draft, we might have a shot at him.’ When he ran the 4.21, there’s a lot of speculation.
When you run a time like that sometimes those guys go even higher. Certainly, saw his speed on tape,
that was one thing that was evident from the first time we put him in all throughout his career playing at
(The University of) Texas. Sometimes those guys run those times and you have to go back and look for it
to see it because it is there but only in spurts. With Xavier (Worthy) – probably everyone thought he was
a 4.3 guy so the 4.21 is something that is unique and special and only made him more attractive.”
Q: What was Patrick Mahomes reaction to securing the pick?
VEACH: “I think he was at the gala tonight in New York. He called me and said, ‘Good luck, I’ll be in this
gala, but I’ve got my phone on.’ I think it was pretty quiet most of the night – right around pick 20 or 21
he said, ‘Hey how’s it looking, what are we thinking?’ 30-45 minutes later when we actually confirmed the
trade with the league – before we turned it in I shot a text and said, ‘I think we’re going to be on the clock
here soon and told him the pick, (he gave it) the thumbs up emoji and was excited. I’m sure they already
touched base and talked. He was a guy that obviously, being from Texas, he knew all about – he knows a
lot about a lot of players. He was excited.”
Q: Where do you think you’re headed going forward – shoring up that tackle position or looking towards
the defensive side of the ball?
VEACH: “Listen, we’ll let the board play out. We’re going to need good players at a bunch of positions
here. We’re always aware of the value of the o-line and d-line needs. Certainly, as we go on, hopefully the
value and the need match and that’s what you always hope for when you get into these drafts, and the
offseason, when they play out, you hope that the need and the value match. At the same time, there’s
other positions we have to get better at and other positions that we need to just continue to bring in
competition. So, any chance we have a player we think can come in and play right away and help us, I
think we’ll defer to that. Again, I think we’re always looking o-line and d-line.”
Q: Was this the first time you guys tried to move up tonight or had you tried to move up earlier?
VEACH: “We had some dialogue for sure. You know how the value and the charts work, even our secondand third-round picks, they’re not very attractive to teams. Now once you get into days two and three it’s
a little bit easier to navigate. Day one, it’s hard, and you’ve got to pay a premium and the picks that you
do have don’t get you up very far. We certainly made some calls – I think we started right around 21 or
22 and there just wasn’t high desire. Other teams’ twos and threes are a lot more valuable than our twos
and threes, and so it just doesn’t do much for you. And we didn’t want to get into a situation where we
were just packaging a bunch of picks. We wanted to just stay flexible throughout the course of the
weekend and continue to add players to this roster. Made some calls early on and a couple teams were
just not interested at all and then a couple teams the price was just way too high. We just waited and then
we had a little window there and Xavier (Worthy) was still on the board and started making some calls
later then – Buffalo was at 28 – so 27, 28, we started making calls right around then, 26 maybe. We
certainly had calls earlier just never came close to getting anything done there.”
Q: You mentioned having a vision for him. What’s the long-term vision for Xavier Worthy?
VEACH: “Well, look, he’s a guy that I think can do a lot for us. We’re super excited about Hollywood
(Brown), and if there’s a chance that Hollywood can come in here and produce, we’d love to extend him,
but the reality of it is he’s only on a one-year deal too. The receiver market is going through the roof and
the guy in Detroit (Amon-Ra St. Brown) just got done. So, whether it be tackle, d-line or receiver, these
are expensive positions. There’s a premium in this league on speed and playmaking ability, and he has
that. So, I think the vision for him is we have him for five years now and that’s a big deal for us as we try
to keep this thing together and add pieces. Those playmakers are hard to come by and they’re expensive
in the offseason. So again, for this year, having him and Hollywood and Travis (Kelce) and Rashee (Rice) I
think is going to be really exciting, but we also know that we have Xavier under contract for five years,
and that’s a big motivating factor – just the length of these contracts.”
Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy Quotes
April 25, 2024
Q: What do you want people to know about your game and what you’re bringing to Kansas City?
WORTHY: “I’m coming with a mentality to work hard, earn my spot and earn my spot in the locker room.
I feel like I can play receiver, I’ve ran a whole route tree, disciplined, smart, knows the game very well, so
I feel like I’m ready to compete and see what’s up in Kansas City.”
Q: What did your pre-draft conversations with the Chiefs look like?
WORTHY: “I talked to the Chiefs at the Combine, as a formal, that was probably the only time we talked,
so just talking to them and knowing it was a possibility to go there. I just kept my hopes alive, and it
happened.”
Q: Where do you think your strengths and weaknesses are down the field?
WORTHY: “I feel like down the field is obviously a given, but I feel like intermediate and the actual route
running and the route tree, I feel like I can run it all and I feel like I’m effective from it all, mobile screens,
reverses, anywhere the ball touches my hands, I feel like I can make a play.”
Q: DeSean Jackson was your favorite player growing up, what is it like to get drafted by the same coach
that drafted him?
WORTHY: “It makes me at ease just to see a coach that drafted a guy similar to me as well and him having
the success he had in this system under (Head Coach) Andy Reid. It’s just amazing to be able to have a
coach that actually gets you as a player and knows you as a player because he’s had that player before.”