* - How well does his skill set carry over
to the fantasy game? For receivers, a player needs to be a realistic
threat for 70 catches and 1,000 receiving yards at some point
early in their career to be a candidate for a perfect grade. Positional
scarcity at the pro level is also a part of the equation.
Positives
• Blistering speed. Cornerbacks in single coverage need
to pray for safety help if the quarterback can throw an accurate
deep ball.
• Displays explosiveness and quick acceleration when he
changes direction.
• Used a lot as a vertical and screen receiver in 2023 but
showed the ability to adjust the pacing of his routes and make
sharp cuts in the short and intermediate areas more often in 2022.
• A hands-catcher who is very confident in hauling in passes
thrown outside of his frame; a 6.3 percent drop rate in 2023 is
reasonable. (Three of his five drops came in one game and most
of the five were focus drops rather than a technique issue.)
• More willing to mix it up physically than one would expect
for a 165-pound receiver with the ball in his hands; competitiveness
is not an issue as a ball-carrier.
• Led the FBS in punt return yardage in 2023 (371 yards),
averaging 16.9 yards per punt return on 22 returns.
Negatives
• Hauled in an unthinkably low 25.5 percent (24 of 94) of
his career deep targets (20-plus yards). Consistently tries hard
to win at the catch point but fails more often than not.
• Missed out on several more big-play opportunities due
to lapses of knowing where he was on the field.
• Does not create near the separation early that a receiver
with his speed should on curls/hitches. When he did separate,
it was typically late downfield.
• Plays with an edge with the ball in his hands, but his
size/strength limitations show up just about everywhere. For example,
he can be disrupted with relative ease by a physical corner and
does not use his hands on his release very often to counteract
press.
• Compounds size/strength limitations by giving minimal
effort as a blocker; generally is not very effective as a blocker
when he does engage.
• Shows questionable effort when he does not expect to see
the ball.
Bottom Line
The NFL has become friendlier to smaller receivers in recent
years, but wideouts like Worthy still face an uphill battle to
be anything more than complementary players. (If we just take
receivers invited to the NFL Combine since 1987, only Marquise Brown, DeSean Jackson and Terance Mathis have experienced sustained
success in the NFL while weighing less than 170 pounds. Tank Dell
may be on the verge of adding his name to the list, however.)
Such a fate may await Worthy as well despite the fact he enters
the NFL as one of the fastest players in league history. Just
because his upside is almost certainly as a complementary player
does not mean he will not be an important piece to an offense,
however. The kind of speed Worthy offers is something defenses
have to account for on every play because it affects coverage,
which, in turn, creates lighter boxes in the running game and
reduces the number of times a team's alpha receiver has to deal
with extra attention.
In some ways, Worthy is a walking contradiction. He is a small
and super-fast receiver who did not do nearly as much damage downfield
as one might expect from someone with his speed. (He never finished
higher than 54th in FBS in deep yards in any of his three college
seasons.) While he did not receive the highest level of quarterback
play while at Texas, the Fresno native also hurt himself multiple
times on deep throws by showing a lack of field awareness near
the sideline. On the other hand, Worthy twice finished among the
top 20 FBS receivers in yards after the catch. He shows a surprising
amount of willingness to put his body on the line with the ball
in his hands. Conversely, his effort can be called into question
when he needs to block or when he knows the ball is unlikely to
be headed in his direction.
The problem with most "speed receivers" is that speed
is sometimes the only trick in their bag. As his yard-after-catch
numbers attest, he is not just a "speed receiver." Perhaps
his biggest problem is that he will not be a great fit for the
handful or so of teams that want to pride themselves on having
a physical rushing attack. He should be a great fit for an offense
willing to spread things out or needing a speed merchant to open
things up underneath for a dynamic alpha receiver who operates
in the short and intermediate areas of the field. That is not
a job description that screams alpha receiver or even future No.
1 receiver, so the team that invests in Worthy should do so with
the expectation that his yearly production and consistency will
not reflect the overall impact he will have on the offense.
Doug Orth has written for FFToday since 2006 and been featured
in USA TODAY's Fantasy Football Preview magazine since 2010. He
is also a high-stakes player who often appears as a guest analyst
on a number of national sports radio shows, such as Sirius XM’s
“Fantasy Drive." Doug is also a member of the Fantasy
Sports Writers Association.
