Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation for causing a six-car crash in Dallas in March 2024. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the NFL is now likely to hand Rice a multi-game suspension for this season. Let’s dive into the fantasy football implications and takeaways of a potential suspension for Rashee Rice.
- Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2025 Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football ADP
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Rashee Rice: Possible Suspension Fantasy Football Implications
The possibility of a suspension is sure to deflate some of the fantasy enthusiasm for Rice, who ranked WR2 in PPR scoring through the first three weeks of the 2024 season before tearing the LCL in his right knee in Week 4 and missing the rest of the year.
Matt Derrick of ChiefsDigest.com reports that sources within the Chiefs organization are expecting a suspension of 2-4 games. It’s unclear whether the league would determine potential discipline for Rice before the start of the season.
Before the news of a possible suspension, Rice had an average draft position (ADP) of WR16, No. 34 overall. Rice’s ADP is destined to slip, but how far?
The guess here is that Rice’s ADP ends up in the low-end WR2 range — somewhere from WR20 to WR23.
I’ve been below consensus on Rice, mainly because of the late-season emergence of Chiefs wideout Xavier Worthy. If you include playoff games — and exclude Week 18, when Worthy played just one snap as the Chiefs rested starters — Worthy had 50 receptions over his last eight games, with at least five catches in each of those contests. That was after having no more than three receptions in any of his first six games.
Granted, Worthy played a role similar to Rice’s in the latter part of the season, with a low average depth of target (aDOT). Rice is expected to be back in that role this season, with Worthy running deeper routes. But Worthy is still going to earn substantial targets.
Fantasy Football Rankings Implications
In 2023, when Rice had 79 catches for 938 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie, Marquez Valdes-Scantling started 10 games at wide receiver for the Chiefs, and Skyy Moore and Justin Watson each started eight games. Worthy poses a far greater threat to Rice’s target share than any member of that motley crew did. A healthy Marquise Brown could also draw significant targets for the Chiefs this season.
I’m expecting a four-game suspension for Rice and dropping him from WR19 to WR28 in my rankings, and I’ve bumped Worthy from WR26 to WR23. I’ve also moved up Brown from WR66 to WR63
Chiefs wide receiver Jalen Royals, a fourth-round selection in this year’s draft, could get meaningful snaps in Rice’s absence, but Royals still isn’t draft-worthy in most redraft leagues — he’s WR89 in my fantasy football rankings.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce could see an uptick in targets during a Rice suspension. I already have an aggressive ranking for Kelce (TE5), so I’m not bumping him up further. And I don’t think a Rice suspension would fundamentally alter the fantasy value of Patrick Mahomes, who’s my QB6.
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | TuneIn
