The Rashee Rice situation has dragged on for a while. Still, we seem to have a final answer now: the Kansas City receiver will be suspended for the first six games of the 2025 regular season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, per ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter.
In recent weeks, Rice’s fantasy stock has taken a bit of a hit. His legal hearings were initially moved to September 30, thus introducing the idea of a midseason suspension into the equation. With this new information, how should fantasy football managers treat the Chiefs’ receiver room?
Kansas City Chiefs WR Depth Chart
The Chiefs have tried to reload their WR room in the post-Tyreek Hill era and have done so in a variety of ways. When at full strength, this is the hierarchy of things in Kansas City:
- WR1: Rashee Rice
- WR2: Xavier Worthy
- WR3: Hollywood Brown
- WR4/5: JuJu Smith-Schuster/Jalen Royals
- WR6: Tyquan Thonton
It’s not unreasonable for you to want exposure to this offense, but how deep you’re willing to go and the price you are willing to pay are certainly moving pieces as we approach the busiest draft weekend of the year.
The games that Rashee Rice will in fact miss:
🏈Week 1: Chargers (in Brazil)
🏈Week 2: Eagles
🏈Week 3: at Giants
🏈Week 4: Ravens
🏈Week 5: at Jaguars
🏈Week 6: Lions https://t.co/zIYnZcJtGi— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 27, 2025
Rice is slated to miss matchups against the Chargers, Eagles, Giants, Ravens, Jaguars, and Lions before returning against the Raiders.
Updated Fantasy Football Value: Rashee Rice
This is actually very good news for Rice, and he is firmly the chief pass catcher who draws my eye most when entering drafts.
Of course, missing 37.5% of the fantasy season off the rip isn’t ideal, but it isn’t coming out of left field. Most early drafters were investing a fifth-ish round pick on Rice with the understanding that some missed time was likely and that the four-to-six-game window was the most common projection.
But now we know — no more guessing. All reports had Rice as fully healthy in camp, so there’s no reason to think he’s anything other than a high-level player when he returns to the field. He will miss these first six weeks, four of which have zero teams on a bye, thus giving you plenty of replacement-level options.
As for the teams on bye in Weeks 5-6? The six of them combined for five receivers being drafted in the top 30, so it’s not as if your roster is going to be starved for WR3/flex plays. I’m more concerned — and by “concerned” I mean “thrilled” — about the final six weeks of the fantasy season than I am the first six.
- Week 12 vs. Colts
Stat to Track: Second-highest short-pass passer rating allowed in 2024 (only the Patriots were worse) - Week 13 at Cowboys
Stat to Track: Highest short-completion percentage allowed last season (78.5%, league average: 73.5%) - Week 14 vs. Texans
Stat to Track: Allowed a league-high 6.1 yards per catch after the reception last season (NFL average: 5.3) - Week 15 vs. Chargers
Stat to Track: Last season, 50 of Mahomes’ 66 passes thrown against the Chargers traveled less than 10 yards downfield (75.8%, the highest mark of his career against the divisional opponent, career rate prior vs LAC: 65.4%) - Week 16 at Titans
Stat to Track: Sixth-highest touchdown rate allowed on short passes - Week 17 vs. Broncos
Stat to Track: Mahomes played against them once last season, and he threw 31 passes no more than five yards downfield, the third-highest
Prior to all legal and health issues, I thought Rice had a legitimate shot at returning WR1 value in PPR leagues. I have no on-field reason to think that isn’t still possible, and with Worthy providing gravity, I like the odds quite a bit.
If you tell me I can get a locked-in asset in plus-matchups down the stretch of the season, it’ll only cost me a fifth/sixth-round pick with some replacement-level games early on, and I will buy every time.
Updated Fantasy Football Value: Xavier Worthy
Worthy has been considered a low-end WR2 for much of the summer and a fringe top-50 overall pick, a status I expect him to maintain, if not improve upon, over the final week of draft season.
- Stat 1: Ranked between Justin Jefferson and Mike Evans
- Stat 2: Ranked between Parker Washington and the now-retired Mike Williams
Given his profile coming out of Texas, it wouldn’t have shocked you if I told you 12 months ago that Worthy ranked among the best in one stat and the worst in another. But would I present those figures in that fashion if the stats fit your priors?
The first stat is fantasy points per game scored on short passes (under 10 air yards), while the second is fantasy points per game scored on deep passes (15-plus air yards).
Yes, you read that right. I didn’t flip the stats. Worthy, with Rice sidelined plenty, was effective on short passes. HC Andy Reid weaponized his speed horizontally in creative ways, and that helped him approach 100 targets and score six times as a rookie.
It was great to see. He earned 31 targets over the final three weeks of the fantasy season and turned 21 targets into 19 catches, 287 yards, and three touchdowns during the playoff run. There certainly is something here, but I’d caution against overrating his 2024 box score regarding 2025 decision-making with Rice on the field.
Those short looks were Worthy’s to lose last year, but that’s highly unlikely to happen when your season is on the line this winter.
Updated Fantasy Football Value: Hollywood Brown and Jalen Royals
These two receivers profile as more DFS darts to throw in September than names to leave a redraft room with.
Brown missed 15 games last regular season and has only one year with 800 receiving yards under his belt. He has the potential to complement Worthy nicely when this team is at full strength, but we have a growing sample size of him not being a big target winner, and he’s been at less than full strength for much of camp.
Royals was a fourth-round pick in April and carries some interesting upside (15.2 yards per catch with a TD on 16.7% of his catches during his time at Utah State), but players like this typically require time to develop.
I fear his growth could be stunted more than encouraged this season if he is put on the field before he is ready and therefore struggles. If that happens, when Rice returns, there won’t be routes to be had.
Updated Fantasy Football Value: The Others
We had missed time penciled in for Rice, so the Mahomes and Travis Kelce rankings aren’t affected in a major way. The case above outlines why I’m more optimistic on Mahomes coming down the stretch today than I was a week ago, and that keeps him in the “not Tier 1, but perfectly fine” tier of signal-caller when all the chips are in the middle of the table for you.
When it comes to Kelce, I haven’t clicked his name much this preseason, and this news only solidifies that train of thought. Rice’s suspension now means he’s more likely to be active late, and that is when the Chiefs have gone into bubble wrap mode with their Hall of Fame tight end.
In 2024, Kelce scored in one of his final seven regular-season games after being blanked for his final six contests in both 2022 and 2023. It’s hard to say anything with certainty in the prediction business, but the recently engaged Kelce is lining up to be a great sell-high candidate after his first big game of 2025.
