Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice hasn’t slowly announced himself as a genuine weapon in the NFL, the second-year star has come out loud in his first season and continued that in Week 1.
After Rice totaled 938 yards and seven touchdowns from 79 receptions last season as he developed into a go-to guy for Patrick Mahomes, Rashee picked up where he left off after the Super Bowl win against the Baltimore Ravens in the season opener.
In the 27-20 win, Rice would have a game-high 103 yards from seven receptions as he looks to have gotten even better as he begins his second NFL season.
“I think he’s just gotten better and better,” Mahomes said of Rice. “I think throughout training camp, throughout in the last year, he’s gotten to be a more versatile receiver where he can do a lot of different things we put him on some read routes, we put him on obviously a lot of slant routes stuff like that where he could win one-on-one, and he did that. I think as the season goes on you’re going to see the full arsenal of routes that he can run, he can run deep routes, intermediate routes, medium routes, he can do it all. So just having all those other weapons around him takes off that focus on him that you kind of saw at some points last year, and I think that makes our offense so great.”
With the Chiefs adding Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown to their offensive arsenal, opposing defenses will have a hard time trying to curtail everyone.
That is perhaps why Rice got free so often against the Ravens. Worthy, Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Justin Watson, and Isiah Pacheco all had receptions, with Mahomes spreading the wealth – and that’s without Brown in the lineup.
The Chiefs are chasing a historic three-peat in 2024, and with Mahomes having so many weapons to utilize, he can go anywhere with the football. But as time goes on, it appears one weapon is getting the most attention, and he’s repaying the faith from his quarterback.
Rice is quickly developing into “the” guy that defenses have to stop, and with him entering just his second season, that’s quite the feather in his cap.
