Fantasy Football Player Notes

Rice looks to pick up where he left off last season. In Weeks 12-17, after assuming a full-time role, he gobbled up a 25.2% target share with a 30.3% first-read share, producing 2.77 yards per route run and 18.6 fantasy points per game. This preseason, his rapport with Patrick Mahomes remained strong, with a 35.2% target per route run rate and 2.06 yards per route run. Rice should be featured heavily in this opening game against the Ravens' two-high defense. In 2023, Baltimore deployed two-high on 53.3% (eighth-highest) of their defensive snaps. Yes, they switched from Mike Macdonald to Zach Orr as defensive coordinator, but Orr has been a long-time Baltimore defensive coach (linebackers). I expect him to integrate his wrinkles into the scheme, but I'm projecting them to still use two-high coverage with more than 50% of their defensive snaps. After Week 11 last season, Rice led the team with a 21.4% target share, 2.78 yards per route run, and a 28.6% first-read share (tied with Travis Kelce) against two-high. If Mahomes isn't looking for Kelce when he drops back, it'll be Rice.

With Hollywood Brown sidelined Worthy should be a full-time player immediately in Week 1. When he was on the field in the preseason, the Chiefs looked to get him involved immediately as he logged a 31.5% target per route run rate while producing 3.26 yards per route run. Worthy could immediately explode in his first NFL game, but he has a tough task in front of him. Last year, Baltimore allowed the fifth-fewest fantasy points per game to opposing wide receivers. They were also particularly stingy to deep passing. Worthy had a 17.0 aDOT in the preseason, but it was such a small sample that we can't rush to pigeonhole him into just a field stretching role in this offense. If that is his role to start the season, though, he could find tough sledding this week against a defense that allowed the second-lowest adjusted completion rate and passer rating to deep passing. Worthy lined up in the slot on 52.6% of his preseason routes. If that holds, he will see Kyle Hamilton for most of the day (last year, he allowed only a 55.7% catch rate and 59.5 passer rating in slot coverage).