RasheeRice

News: 1 day agoRice had three catches on five targets for 32 yards in Sunday's 23-20 win over the Jets.

Spin: Rice finished with a pedestrian stat line in a rare down game from Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City's aerial attack. The defending Super Bowl champions still got the win, and the rookie wideout maintained his role as one of the team's primary options behind star tight end Travis Kelce. Rice's five targets only trailed Kelce's nine, which shows the trust Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid have in him just four games into his pro career. Rice's next chance to grow that trust -- and in turn, his role on offense -- will come on the road against Minnesota next Sunday.

ESPN Fantasy Projection: Rice was selected in the second round of April's draft. The SMU product's usage and production progressively grew during his four collegiate seasons, but he really broke out in 2022, posting a 96-1,355-10 receiving line in 12 games. That included a massive 32% target share. He primarily worked outside (69% perimeter) and in the short area (9.0 aDOT) and will need to clean up drops (24 in 44 games). He has a good size/speed combo and posted an impressive 41-inch vertical at the combine. Especially in Kansas City's elite, pass-heavy offense, Rice has a path to Year 1 fantasy-relevance in a wide-open WR room led by the likes of Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore. He's a fine mid-to-late-round flier.