Before Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was lost for the 2024 season with a rare PLC knee injury sustained during a collision with quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the Week 4 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, he had been on a hot streak. Through three games, he had ranked second in the league in catches (12) on 14 targets, gaining 110 yards and a touchdown.
According to the team’s passing game coordinator Joe Bleymaier, the impact of Rice’s injury went beyond his on-field contributions.
“It was devastating on a personal level for all the guys,” he told reporters after the Chiefs’ sixth OTA practice on Wednesday. “Everyone roots for him; he’s such a great locker room teammate and a competitor on the field.
“You could just feel everything starting to click. And the breakout that he was about to have — or that he was on the verge of — everyone could sense it. So the devastation [wasn’t] just for him personally. The team component — how we were going to move the ball and score against the defense — that kind of came secondary.”
Rice had been expected to be fully recovered from his injury before OTAs began. However, when the first practice open to reporters took place last Thursday, he was absent due to illness. Just the same, Mahomes said Rice had been looking good during their Phase 2 work in Texas.
“I was throwing with him in Dallas a little bit,” said the quarterback last week. “Then getting him back out here, there’s no limitations. He’s out there playing, he’s making plays on the football field. He’s explosive [and] he looks fast.”
On Wednesday, reporters got to see Rice for themselves.
“He’s looked good,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said after the session. “He’s come back strong; he’s been working hard to get to this point.”
Nagy said that he was reminded of how Rice had been looking during the opening run of last season.
“You can tell he knows where he’s going,” he added.
Bleymaier believes Rice’s return will be beneficial to the whole offense.
“Having Rashee back opens up a lot of things,” he noted. “But then his personality — and the competitor that he is — raises everybody’s game.”
