Rashee Rice suffered a brutal leg injury during a collision with Patrick Mahomes against the Los Angeles Chargers during their week four matchup. His injury required surgery to his hamstring and LCL, prematurly ending his sophmore campaign.

His abilities and energy were missed in Super Bowl LIX as it appears he was creating a dangerous duo with Xavier Worthy. Rice is set to return in 2025 and Pro Football Network believes Rice will be a top wide receiver next season, finishing in the top 10 for receiving yards.

“The Chiefs being in yet another Super Bowl is all the more remarkable when you remember how decimated their new-look wide receiver room was in 2024. Hollywood Brown and Rice never played a game together, with the latter seeing his season end in Week 4 with an LCL injury. The good news is that Rice’s estimated recovery timeline of four months gives him plenty of time to ramp up for the 2025 season, suggesting he shouldn’t experience a significant lag in performance. At the time of his injury, Rice ranked 12th with 288 receiving yards but also had the fifth-highest target rate (33%) among wide receivers.” Wrote PFN’s Kyle Soppe.

“By now, we know Travis Kelce will be on some type of maintenance plan that reduces his regular season production to preserve him for the playoffs. Brown and DeAndre Hopkins are both free agents, which could lead to another thin wide receiver room next season. All that shapes up to have Rice serve as Patrick Mahomes’ top target next regular season, allowing him to deliver the type of production he was headed for in 2024.”

Soppe is right. Rice was on a roll during his first three games of the season. Teams were so worried about Mahomes’ interior passing game that Rice ran rampant on the outside. Rice hauled in 24 catches on 29 targets for 288 yards and two touchdowns. The tenth highest player for receiving yards was Chargers WR Ladd McConkey with 1,149 receiving yards. Consider Rice was averaging nearly 100 yards per game, if Rice plays a 17 game season, he smashes McConkey’s mark by a significant margin.

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