After four weeks of play, the Kansas City Chiefs' perfect record remains intact. At 4-0 on the year, this looks much more like the Chiefs teams of 2018-2024 than whatever the 2025 disaster of a group was.
It isn't just luck, either. While some things have certainly broken in favor of head coach Andy Reid's crew, there's been plenty of adversity along the way as well. Week 4's contest against the Las Vegas Raiders was a prime example of that, as Kansas City never had complete control of things until the final whistle but emerged with a triumph anyway .
In the process, several players stood out with their play for both positive and negative reasons.
Let's dive into the good and bad from Week 4's Chiefs victory against Las Vegas and single out three players whose stock is trending up, as well as three who could use a better showing after the bye.
The following players found a way to improve over their prior-week performances and are on the up and up heading into a new week.
Third-year wide receiver Xavier Worthy has found his name in this recurring story multiple times, but this is the first instance of him going upstream. The former first-round pick had by far his most impactful game of the season on Sunday, hauling in four passes on seven targets for 70 yards.
Worthy's highlight of the day came in two situations he hasn't made the most of this year: a vertical pass on a late down. Facing a third-and-10 in Las Vegas territory, quarterback Patrick Mahomes uncorked a deep ball to his talented wideout that he managed to come down with, setting up a score on the drive.
With Rashee Rice rehabbing a hamstring issue during the bye and Tyquan Thornton set to miss most or all of the regular season following an ugly ankle injury, it's Worthy receiver room for the time being. That isn't inherently a great thing for Kansas City, although it's undoubtedly nice if you're the team to see the 23-year-old capitalize on his chances.
In a similar bucket as Worthy, defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah may never live up to the billing that came with his draft slot. With that said, he can still carve out a productive role in the NFL, which is exactly what he's doing early in year No. 4 with the club.
The former Kansas State standout made numerous plays in the second half of Week 4, including a pair of third-down disruptions of Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins and a nice run stop. A nice surprise from this campaign is that Anudike-Uzomah is rotating inside a bit and rushing as more of a tackle than an end, which gives the opposition an off-speed pitch to deal with.
Pro Football Focus credits the 24-year-old with eight pressures on the year. If he can average a pair of impactful plays and have them be on late downs, that'd make him a reliable piece both now and into January when and if the Chiefs are still playing.
Speaking of PFF , the outlet gave fellow defensive end George Karlaftis a staggering 11 pressures for his Sunday performance. It's this writer's opinion that the number is inflated and closer to a half-dozen, but either way, there's no denying that "Furious George" lived up to his nickname against a bitter division rival.
Karlaftis got home to Cousins six times. Even if a player doesn't come away with a sack for the afternoon or evening, that's still an impressive number. Technically Karlaftis did have a sack, although it got nullified by a holding flag on cornerback L'Jarius Sneed. Elsewhere, he was a menace in run support and also combined with linebacker Drue Tranquill for a fourth-down disturbance that forced a field goal.
Sensing a theme? Production on third and fourth down cuts deeper than early-down splash plays, and Kansas City had plenty of the former in Week 4. Karlaftis played a huge role in that.
These players are far from doomed but would benefit from better days at the office in the second "half" of the season.
Admittedly, the Chiefs do deserve some slack for their lack of elite offensive line play. The front is doing a nice job paving the way for running back Kenneth Walker III, so it isn't like the entire operation is failing. Additionally, left tackle Josh Simmons still isn't in the lineup due to his back injury. To top it all off, left guard Kingsley Suamataia was unexpectedly benched for Week 4 .
Still, the line has seen better days than this past Sunday.
According to TruMedia , Las Vegas' 39.4% pressure rate ranked 12th leaguewide for the week of play. Not only that, but defensive coordinator Rob Leonard brought five rushers on just 12.1% of dropbacks, good for the fifth-lowest mark. The left-side line duo of Kahlil Benson and Mike Caliendo underwhelmed, and that's without even considering a botched snap by center Creed Humphrey (who's otherwise been amazing in 2026, to be fair).
Perhaps the returns of Simmons and Suamataia can lead to improvement.
I won't spend too much time here, because it's otherwise been a great season for second-year man Nohl Williams. In many regards, even Sunday considered, he's living up to the hype and delivering quality play as the boundary corner the Chiefs desperately needed after losing both Jaylen Watson (free agency) and Trent McDuffie (trade).
That said, Williams might need to dial back the physicality depending on who's in charge of the referee crew each week. He was flagged twice versus the Raiders once for unnecessary roughness on a hard hit and elsewhere for defensive holding on a third-and-8 that could've gotten Kansas City off the field.
The aggressiveness shouldn't be coached out of Williams in a larger sample; it's part of what makes him intriguing. It came back to bite him in Week 4, though.
The Chiefs didn't necessarily break the bank for safety Alohi Gilman this offseason, and it's a good thing they didn't - at least at the bye week. He has yet to prove to be a ball-hawking force or much of a plus player in the secondary. Heck, the return of Chamarri Conner for his first game back at safety in quite some time saw him make more positive plays.
Gilman jumped off the screen only a couple of times, and one of them was when wide receiver Tre Tucker essentially brought him along for the ride on a 14-yard completion. Gilman surrendered a trio of receptions in coverage to go with a 143.8 passer rating and didn't factor into run defense in a major way despite logging 17 snaps in the box.
He'll have to improve to totally justify the club's signing of him to replace Bryan Cook.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/chiefs/onsi as Chiefs Stock Report: Three Players Rising and Falling After Week 4 .
