What Rashee Rice Update Means For Fantasy Owners

After a legal incident in Texas, Rice was looking at a potential suspension in 2025. The NFL had originally ruled that it would hold a formal hearing to decide his fate on September 30, freeing him to play at least the first four games for the Chiefs. After that, though, no one knew what to expect for Rice, as the league could have determined anything ranging from letting him off completely and suspending him for the remainder of the year.

That made him a risky gambit for fantasy football players. On the one hand, anyone drafting him could wind up with a potential steal due to a lowered ADP stemming from the uncertainty surrounding him. On the other hand, spending a valuable pick on someone who might wind up only suiting up for the first four games of the season could have been a death knell.

Rashee Rice, Chiefs, and fantasy drafters get big break in latest update

It turns out that the NFL was willing to hand down its judgment without the official September 30 hearing, and Rashee Rice was willing to accept the six-game suspension. In all likelihood, this was a good decision for the wide receiver, the Kansas City Chiefs, and his fantasy owners.

Rather than risk getting yanked for the rest of the season after Week 4, Rice knows now that he'll be eligible to return in Week 7 against the Las Vegas Raiders. That also means that his current fantasy owners and prospective drafters no longer have to fear an unknown future suspension. They can plan accordingly to buffer his absence in the first stretch of the year and await his return ahead of the playoffs.

Six weeks is nothing to brush off, neither for fantasy players nor the Kansas City Chiefs, but managing a predetermined suspension is much more navigable than laying one's season at the mercy of the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Anyone who still plans on drafting Rice moving forward would be wise to also roster one of the wide receivers behind him on the depth chart to offset his absence in the first half of the campaign, though.