Rashee Rice Injury: Latest Health Update After Season-Ending Surgery as Chiefs Star Shares Emotional Message

Rashee Rice recently injured his knee when he collided with Patrick Mahomes while trying to make a tackle post-interception. This happened during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Chargers. We’ve now had word about Rice’s prognosis.

It seems Rice is definitively out for this season, but he is expected to make a full recovery, with no long-term concerns. He recently took to social media, saying “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 🙏🏾 small thing to a GIANT.” 

The 24-year old was only in his second in the NFL, and had had a killer start to his season. Across the 4 games he played, he’d made 24 receptions for 288 yards, with no fumbles. His Week 1 performance against the Ravens, making 103 yards over 7 receptions, was key to their 27-20 win. It’s tragic his season’s been cut short, he was clicking well with Mahomes, and it looked like this year was going to be a good one.

When Patrick Mahomes was asked about the injury right after the game he was regretful. “I didn’t notice in the moment, I was just trying to get the ball. When I saw the replay I felt like s— that I hit Rashee,” he said. Mahomes blames himself somewhat for going full power at the moment of the impact with Rashee Rice. Player injuries can cause a snowball, just look at what happened to the Saints after their strong start. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to have been the case with the Kansas City Chiefs, at least as of Week 5.

Who’s stepping up in Rashee Rice’s absence?

If you followed the Chiefs’ Week 5 game against the Saints, you know the Chiefs did just fine without Rice. In part there’s one man to thank for that – JuJu Smith-Schuster. Speaking about JuJu’s performance after the game, Mahomes said “He stepped up. I mean, that’s the perfect way to put it.” The 27-year old’s spent most of his career with the Steelers, then 2022 with the Chiefs and 2023 with the Eagles, back with the Chiefs again this year.

JuJu made 7 receptions for 130 yards against the Saints. Of course, Mahomes emphasizes that they wouldn’t just be relying on JuJu, though he admired the role he’d played. With Travis Kelce playing better in Week 5 than he had been so far, it’s quite likely the tight end will see a little more action too. Plus, there’s rookie Xavier Worthy to look into. At the end of the day, it’s clear the Chiefs haven’t suffered more than a speed bump. Their Super Bowl ambitions are more than alive, and that 3peat’s looking more and more likely by the day.