Some NFL fans are celebrating the news that a suspension for Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice is likely coming this season, and it shows how desperate they are to see Kansas City’s dominance of the league come to an end.
They’re going to be disappointed.
The NFL world has known Rice would likely be suspended after he was involved in a multi-car crash last year. It was a matter of when, not if, Rice’s suspension would take place, since the NFL usually waits for the legal process to play out before handing down a punishment. And with the U.S. justice system moving at a glacial pace, it looked for a while like Rice wouldn’t miss any games in 2025.
According to a release from the Dallas County District Attorney's office, Rice has pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony charges and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation.
Rice is getting off easy here. Drag racing on a highway where innocent people are traveling is insanely stupid. He’s fortunate nobody, including himself, was killed in the crash. A month in jail, fines, restitution, and probation is the best possible outcome he could hope for when the alternative was loss of life.
On the football side of things, Rice admitting guilt means the NFL is now expected to suspend him, much to the delight of Chiefs haters everywhere. The bad news for those celebrating Rice’s potential multi-game suspension is that his absence is likely to be more than a minor inconvenience for the juggernaut that is the Kansas City Chiefs whether that suspension be for four, six, or even eight games.
The Chiefs are going to dominate, with or without Rashee Rice
While the Chiefs would certainly like to have Rice’s services all season long, we already know they can win games without him. Last season, Rice was lost early in the Chiefs’ fourth game versus the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chiefs won that game 17-10 and then proceeded to go 11-1 in their next 12 games before resting their starters in Week 17 against the Denver Broncos, after already securing the AFC’s top seed. The Rashee Rice-less Chiefs went on to march through the playoffs, winning their third-straight AFC Championship, before getting hammered by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Never mind the fact that the Chiefs still went to the Super Bowl without Rice, they did it with less-than-ideal offensive personnel. The Chiefs lost Hollywood Brown in the preseason, so when Rice went down, they were without their top two veteran wide receivers. The Chiefs also lost starting RB Isiah Pacheco mid-season.
Old reliable, Travis Kelce, was there of course, but given his advancing age and the lack of other offensive threats, he was easier than ever for defenses to contain. Outside of Kelce, it wasn’t pretty. Patrick Mahomes was forced to rely on raw rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy, the corpse of JuJu Smith-Schuster, who was cut by a horrendous Patriots team, and a diminished Kareem Hunt, who was at home sitting on the couch until the Chiefs came calling.
On the offensive line, rookie second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia, who was expected to start at left tackle, turned out to be a turnstile, so he got benched for Wanya Morris, who was about as effective as a road cone. Things got so bad that rather than get Patrick Mahomes killed, the Chiefs opted to move their All-Pro left guard, Joe Thuney, to tackle.
None of it mattered. The Chiefs went 15-2 and marched through the AFC playoffs, beating an excellent Buffalo Bills team along the way, and landed in their third-straight Super Bowl.
To be fair, the offensive shortcomings — particularly along the line — finally caught up with Kansas City, and they got walloped by a ferocious Eagles defense. While most of the non-Chiefs fan NFL world took delight in finally seeing the big, bad Chiefs go down, the fact that the Chiefs were even in the Super Bowl at all is a small miracle.
Actually, it wasn’t a miracle.
It was Patrick Mahomes.
Not many teams could lose their starting wide receiver, their other starting wide receiver, their starting running back, move their guard to left tackle, and go 15-2.
So if the Chiefs haters think losing Rashee Rice for a handful of games is going to somehow slow down the win-machine that is the Kansas City Chiefs, they’re likely to be seriously disappointed.