The Kansas City Chiefs have seen numerous injuries impact their offense this season. The biggest blow came early in the year when wide receiver Rashee Rice suffered a major knee injury.
Read about what happened to Rice that’s causing him to miss their Sunday Night Football tilt against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Why Isn’t Rashee Rice Playing?
Rice was injured on a Patrick Mahomes interception in Week 4 versus the Los Angeles Chargers. The receiver forced Chargers cornerback Kristian Fulton to fumble, but Mahomes appeared to take out Rice’s right knee while trying to make a tackle (to add insult to injury, Fulton’s fumble and the Chiefs’ ensuing recovery were eventually overturned).
After allowing the swelling in his knee to abate, Rice underwent an arthroscopic knee procedure on Monday, Oct. 7. That operation yielded positive news, indicating that, while Rice needed an LCL repair, he may not have damaged any other ligaments.
The following day, Rice had surgery on his LCL and his hamstring tendon, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz. However, Rice avoided tears or damage to his ACL or meniscus. Schultz called Rice’s operation “the best-case scenario.”
How Long Will Rashee Rice Be Out Due to Injury?
Head coach Andy Reid noted after the surgery that the timeline for Rice is similar to that of a torn ACL. That would put his expected return sometime around the beginning of the 2025 season.
Barring some sort of unexpected setback, Rice should be expected to be available for Week 1 of the 2025 season, and perhaps even earlier in training camp.
However, he may have to miss additional time anyway since the NFL is expected to suspend him for his role in a high-speed hit-and-run in March 2024. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported that Rice may try to serve his potential suspension while injured.
How Has Rashee Rice’s Absence Impacted the Chiefs?
Rice’s absence has created a mammoth gap in the Chiefs’ receiving corps.
Without his top wide receiver, Mahomes has set career lows across the board. Entering the team’s Week 14 Sunday night matchup, Mahomes is producing career-worsts in:
- Touchdown-to-interception ratio: 19-11
- Yards per attempt: 7.0
- Passing yards per game: 248.3
- Touchdown rate: 4.4%
- Sack rate: 7.0%
In addition, Mahomes is throwing the third-shortest average pass in the league, with an aDOT of 6.2 air yards.
Travis Kelce has been more dependable after an early-season slump, ranking second among tight ends in receptions behind Brock Bowers. But even with trade deadline-arrival DeAndre Hopkins, the depletion at WR has caused the team to rely on Kelce more than intended.
The plan was to not overload Kelce during the regular season to keep him fresh for the playoffs. However, Kelce has instead played over 83% of the team’s snaps this season, his highest rate in a season since 2019.
All this has created a less explosive Chiefs offense that is highly reliant on maintaining a high success rate that allows them to barely stay on schedule. It’s worked just well enough so far, with a litany of close escapes putting Kansas City in position to earn the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. But championships are now the expectation, and it’s unclear whether the Chiefs have the offensive firepower to become the first Super Bowl three-peat champs.