RasheeRice

News: 1 day agoRice will lead Kansas City's receiving corps Thursday against the Ravens, while teammate Marquise Brown (shoulder) has been ruled out.

Spin: Rice's fantasy stock tumbled after an alleged hit-and-run incident in March led to a slew of legal charges, but he's avoided the commissioner's exempt list and may even avoid a league suspension until 2025. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes shouldn't lack for capable pass catchers even with Brown out of the lineup for a week or two, as the Chiefs also have rookie wideout Xavier Worthy and veteran tight end Travis Kelce available. Nate Taylor of The Athletic suggests that the team expects Rice to have more of an impact on deep and intermediate routes this season, after his rookie-year success was largely built on catching short passes and gaining yards after the catch.

ESPN Fantasy Projection: Rice was arguably the one thing that went right in a 2023 Chiefs wide receiver room that seemed to get everything else wrong. He delivered 212.5 fantasy points (eighth best among all rookies) and had seven top-25 positional weekly scores. Though he did most of his damage in the short game -- his 4.9 aDOT was lowest among wide receivers -- he quickly developed into a go-to target for Patrick Mahomes. Rice was WR8 in the season's final seven weeks, despite sitting out Week 18. Rice is tricky to rank, as he could be facing a multi-game suspension due to an off-the-field incident, but he has WR2 value when active. His usage should be similar to 2023 even after the team's offseason addition of deep threats Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy.