Rashee Rice will miss the first six games of the season due to a suspension. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
(Kevin Sabitus via Getty Images)
The NFL is suspending Kansas City Chiefs WR Rashee Rice six games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy stemming from his involvement in a 2024 car crash, NFL Network reported on Wednesday. Rice will miss the first six games of the 2025 regular season. Here’s a look at the Chiefs’ schedule for that stretch:
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Week 1: vs. Chargers (in Brazil)
Week 2: vs. Eagles
Week 3: @ Giants
Week 4: vs. Ravens
Week 5: @ Jaguars
Week 6: vs. Lions
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Rice will be eligible to return from suspension in Week 7 when the Chiefs face the Las Vegas Raiders at home. Initial reports had Rice’s hearing for a potential suspension set for Sept. 30, which would have meant the suspension news would come during the season after the first four games.
Last season, Rice suffered a knee injury that required surgery after Week 4, ruling him out for the remainder of the 2024 season. In those four games, Rice had 24 catches for 288 yards and two touchdowns. As a rookie in 2023, Rice burst onto the scene with 79 catches for 938 yards and seven TDs, as the Chiefs’ leading wide receiver. He also added 26 catches for 262 yards and a TD to help Kansas City win the Super Bowl that postseason.
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The news that Rice will be suspended to start the season fundamentally changes the calculation for how to approach him in fantasy football drafts. Things have changed compared to where they stood when we were speculating he would be suspended prior to that Sept. 30 arbitration date. If he was going to play the first four weeks and then miss time, I wrote him up as a complete avoid in fantasy drafts, ranking him in the WR40 or so range.
This is a much more palatable absence to accept. Six games is a lot but those weeks will come when you don’t have to deal with as many byes. As I consistently harped on the last time we received an update on Rice, I thought fantasy analysts were overlooking the fact that he might start this season at a little less than complete form as he works back from a serious knee injury.
The fact that he’ll get six more weeks to round back into his usual shape should make us feel a bit better, although nothing gets you ready to be in football shape like … playing football. Nonetheless, the extra time still helps as his body continues to heal.
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The only risk I think Rice presents now is that he returns in Week 7 to a role that’s a little less volume-centric than the one he operated in last we saw him play. In Weeks 1-3 last year, Rice was targeted on 34.1% of his routes (second most among receivers with 50 or more routes run) and had a 33.7% share of the Chiefs’ targets (second-highest behind Malik Nabers). Rice is one of the most efficient receivers in the NFL, but he is an outlier among that cohort of elite efficiency options in terms of how he’s used as an underneath zone-beater. To Rice’s credit, he was otherworldly in terms of getting open against zone coverage in a brief sample last season.
There’s a chance that a more in-shape Travis Kelce commands more work there but the only way Rice really suffers is if Xavier Worthy takes a big leap forward in the first six weeks while Rice is out. This is quite possible and probably doesn’t get enough credence in the fantasy space. Worthy was relatively better at beating zone than man coverage in Year 1 but is a more vertical threat than Rice and presents a different dimension. Worthy was targeted on only 14.7% of his routes in Weeks 1-3, and I think the odds he sticks to that number in 2025 are close to zero.
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All of that is a minor risk for Rice and should be plenty baked into where you draft him. He’s still attached to one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. With all that in mind and the six-game suspension accounted for, I have Rice ranked as my WR34 and around 64th overall. So, he’s a tolerable pick in Round 6.
Remember, six games is a lot to have an anchor on your bench that prevents you from churning your roster to maximum potential. I also struggle going all-in on Rice as a late Round 5 or early Round 6 selection because there are so many good wide receiver options in that range of the draft.
While I recognize the fantasy ceiling we’ve seen from Rice, I’d hate to have a suspended player be the reason I don’t get a couple of Emeka Egbuka, Ricky Pearsall, Travis Hunter, Tetairoa McMillan, Rome Odunze, etc. on my team. Maybe I’m just too skeptical of Rice because, despite the volume and efficiency he’s accounted for through something close to a season and a half in the NFL, he hasn’t shown us a true WR1 skill set just yet. Maybe that comes this year — it did with Amon-Ra St. Brown, who started his career as a similar player, over time. Perhaps I’m overthinking its necessity to begin with. I just want to be judicious about adding him to my rosters when he’s likely to go in the same territory as so many appealing breakout wide receivers who could add a similar ceiling this season and be available in Week 1. However, he’s gone from someone I wasn’t even considering at his ADP due to the uncertainty of the timeline to back on the mid-round radar now that we know the suspension will come in Weeks 1-6.