Xavier Worthy, Joe Thuney Receive Chiefs' Top Honors

The Chiefs didn’t have many highlights in Super Bowl LIX. In fact, the best play of the day came on their last offensive snap.

Completing one of the best throws of his career, Mahomes dropped a perfectly placed pass into the arms of streaking Xavier Worthy on a skinny post up the left hash. The 50-yard touchdown combined with Mahomes’ ensuing two-point pass to DeAndre Hopkins, cut the Eagles’ lead to 40-22 with 1:48 remaining. But Philadelphia recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

A fitting end to Worthy’s rookie season, the touchdown gave him quiet momentum entering the offseason. He got another boost on Friday when the Chiefs named him winner of the Mack Lee Hill Award, presented annually to the team’s rookie of the year by vote of Chiefs players.

That rookie season – a year in which Worthy wound up proving everyone wrong -- began a year ago at the scouting combine, where Worthy established the combine record with a 4.21-second 40-yard dash. After the Chiefs traded up in the first round to select him 28th overall, he scored rushing and receiving touchdowns in his NFL debut, a 27-20 win over Baltimore.

He finished with 638 yards on 59 receptions. His nine total touchdowns were second among NFL rookies behind Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas. In each of his final 10 games, including postseason, Worthy posted at least 40 yards from scrimmage.

Worthy joined veteran Joe Thuney as Chiefs players honored on Friday. Thuney’s teammates named him the 2024 Derrick Thomas team MVP.

A first-team All-Pro, Thuney graded out as the NFL’s second-ranked pass-blocking guard per Pro Football Focus. His late-season contributions at left tackle, however, were surely most appreciated by his teammates. After Andy Reid moved him outside, Thuney neutralized Myles Garrett, Danielle Hunter, Von Miller and T.J. Watt, among others, and allowed just two sacks over his seven starts at left tackle.

Thuney is the first offensive lineman to win the Derrick Thomas team MVP since Glenn Parker captured it in 1998.

Thomas, one of the NFL’s greatest pass-rushers of all-time, passed away tragically in 1999 after a car accident. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

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