In less than a week, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs face the Denver Broncos in their 2026 season opener. But a recent ranking from CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin offers little hope, placing the Chiefs’ wide receiver corps 29th in the league as top targets Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy deal with injuries.

“With Rashee Rice still looking hobbled after rehabbing his knee injury in jail and Xavier Worthy again banged up in camp, the Chiefs might be counting on training-camp star Cyrus Allen to be a real factor, rather than a mere curiosity. That’s a dangerous game to play,” Dubin wrote.

That’s a tough spot for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who’s still working his own way back from major knee surgery, with little proven depth around him to lean on.

This time around, the Chiefs trimmed things down to six wide receivers: Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Royals, Nikko Remigio, and Cyrus Allen. That’s after keeping seven in each of 2023 and 2024, and eight in 2025.

Honestly, that’s probably the right call. Last season, the sixth, seventh, and eighth guys, Nikko Remigio, Jalen Royals, and Jason Brownlee, on the roster combined for just three catches and 25 yards. That’s with Rice out for nine games and both Worthy and Thornton missing three each.

As for Worthy, ESPN’s Dan Graziano thinks he’s in line for a big role this year. He’s had more than 40 catches and 500-plus yards in each of his first two seasons, though there was a dip from his rookie year, when he put up 59 receptions, 638 yards and six scores.

Graziano pointed out that the Chiefs had bigger plans for him last season

“The Chiefs had major plans for Worthy in last year’s offense, but you might remember he got hurt on the third play of their season when he collided with teammate Travis Kelce and suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to miss Weeks 2-3,” Graziano wrote. “Worthy came back and played the rest of the season wearing a brace, but the coaching staff was limited in what it could ask him to do given his condition, and many of the plans for him had to be shelved.”

That might not be the case this time. Worthy told reporters Wednesday he’s feeling good and ready to go for the opener against Denver.

It won’t be an easy welcome back, though. The Broncos were one of the best defenses in the league last year and beat Kansas City twice, holding them under 20 points both times.

Still, Worthy sounds confident about where things stand with Mahomes, saying the two have been putting in work all offseason on their timing.

“Once you’re in there… it’s kind of fun,” Worthy told reporters yesterday. “So I feel like when it’s time to play, we’ll be ready.”

While the receiver room, including Worthy, ranks low right now, the team is clearly optimistic about Mahomes returning.

Patrick Mahomes set to start Week 1 against Broncos

All signs point to Patrick Mahomes suiting up for Kansas City’s Week 1 matchup against Denver. Ever since his knee surgery last December, Mahomes has made no secret of his goal: being ready for Week 1.

“I think it’s just the bad taste that we had from last season,” said Mahomes during the Chiefs’ kickoff luncheon, via Chiefs Digest’s Matt Derrick, when he was asked about what motivated him this offseason. “It didn’t go the way we wanted to, Coach [Andy] Reid talked about that. But we learned from it and we’ve gotten better.”

Doctors initially floated October as a realistic target, but Mahomes blew past that timeline, working with the first team all through camp. He didn’t play a single preseason snap, though that was the plan all along.

“He’s going to keep practicing just like he’s been doing,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday, after their first practice following roster cuts. “These are more like practice here, a lot of one-versus-one play these next couple of days. That’s a good thing.”

Worthy, for one, never doubted Mahomes would be ready. He came back to Kansas City early this summer just to train alongside him.

“His will and want-to is beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” Worthy said. “He kind of leads the team in that way. You have your leader leading like that and guys fall behind. He’s just a ‘will’ guy, always willing to work.”

The bigger question might be who’s protecting him. Left tackle Josh Simmons is still dealing with a back issue, and guard Trey Smith missed most of August with a hip injury, so the line is a bit of a patchwork right now. Even so, Mahomes has been taking full practice reps with no rest days needed, and he says he feels good moving around and making plays.

Good news for Chiefs fans: everything points to him starting Week 1.