The Kansas City Chiefs get their 2025 NFL season underway against the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, Brazil this week.
However, franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be without one of his key weapons for the first six games of the season with wide receiver Rashee Rice out of action.
Why is Rashee Rice not playing Week 1?
The 25-year-old Chiefs route runner was handed a six-game suspension by the NFL ahead of the 2025 regular season after being found guilty of violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
This comes after the second-round pick in the 2023 draft pled guilty to two third-degree felony charges following his involvement in a multi-car crash on Dallas’ North Central Expressway last year.
These charges include collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.
With the incident, in which he was driving his Lamborghini Urus SUV at over 119mph before losing control and causing a six-vehicle collision, Rice was ultimately sentenced to 30 days of jail time and five years of probation.
He will have a choice of when to serve that jail time, with it needing to be done within the five-year probationary window.
Initially there was some speculation over how the NFL would handle their own investigation and disciplinary process after it was announced that they were going to delay their proceedings until the end of September.
This led to some fans proposing the conspiracy theory that the league was up to its script-writing again, and wanted the receiver to be available to Mahomes for some big early-season contests against the Chargers, the reigning Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens.
However, these theories have since been put to bed following the official announcement of a six-game suspension.
When will Rice be back for the Chiefs?
Rice will serve the first of his six-game suspension as the Chiefs take on the Chargers 7,000 miles away from the iconic Arrowhead Stadium and in the home of Brazilian soccer team Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Therefore, he will be eligible to return in Kansas City’s home contest against division rivals, the new-look Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, October 19.
Able to play a maximum of 11 regular season games, Rice will be hoping to quickly eclipse last year’s tally of 288 yards and two touchdowns, after the speedster picked up a nasty knee injury from his own teammate.
This arose after Mahomes collided with his receiver completely accidentally back in Week 4 of the 2024 campaign in the Chiefs’ 17-10 win over the Chargers.
Rice’s season would end right then and there as he was found to have suffered a torn LCL which required surgery to repair it.
What have Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce said?
With his multi-game suspension having been expected for quite some time, head coach Andy Reid admitted that he had already been planning his team and schemes around this.
“We had an idea that something was going to happen, whether it was now or later, it doesn’t necessarily matter, but something was going to happen, and it would probably be around that six-game area,” Reid said.
“And so, we went about business full steam ahead (and) rotated guys in. Everybody got a chance to play that will have an opportunity to play here…
“Not that you don’t miss, Rashee. I mean, he’s a heck of a football player, but we have, we have other guys that are good players, too.”
Rice was still able to attend – and fully participate in – training camp practices, and impressed after having been out for so long already with that serious knee injury.
“He had a real good camp who kept himself in the right frame of mind of where he could work,” Big Red continued. “He wasn’t moping around. Stayed positive. He’s trying to do the right things.
“First of all, I’ve mentioned somewhere that you know, Rashee’s got a real good heart. It’s unfortunate that it happened. Thank goodness people weren’t hurt obviously, but lesson learned.
“And you move on and try to, try to move ahead in a positive manner. And so far, he’s done a nice job with that.”
But it wasn’t just Reid who was in support of his player, but the veteran leaders who have been the real spearheads of Kansa City’s dynasty put their full support behind their teammate in Mahomes and Kelce.
“Obviously, losing a receiver of that magnitude that’s that good, it takes away from the offense, in a sense,” Mahomes said on Monday.
“But at the same time, we brought in depth with (Brett) Veach and them, brought in a lot of receiver depth so that guys can step up and take over that role in different spots.
“It won’t be just one guy. It’ll be multiple guys that will kind of do some of the stuff that Rashee has done, and then other guys will step up at other spots and make plays as well.”
Fortunately for Mahomes, it isn’t though he is short of receiving options to throw the football to, with Xavier Worthy primed to have a breakout season, as well as having Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster and impressive rookie Jalen Royals at his disposal.
Nonetheless, Rice will be itching to get back onto the gridiron, with all-time great tight end Travis Kelce fully expecting him to go all out in his preparations for his eventual season debut.
“He’s going to attack these weeks and make sure that he’s ready for when he’s allowed back in the building,” Kelce said of Rice on Wednesday’s episode of the New Heights podcast.
“I think it’s going to create that much more love and that much more fight out of him. I think he’s got a lot to prove still in this league.”
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