Chiefs brace for Rice's six-game suspension with deep wide receiver roster

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs knew that Rashee Rice's six-game suspension was coming down from the NFL this week.

That's why they kept eight wide receivers on cutdown day.

Now, they believe they are better suited to deal with the absence of their No. 1 wide receiver than they were last season, when the Chiefs were suddenly without Rice for most of the season following an injury to his right knee.

JuJu Smith-Schuster came back to training camp in excellent shape, general manager Brett Veach said, and rookie Jalen Royals has a similar skillset. Throw in a healthy Marquise Brown, who was out most of last season because of a shoulder injury, and the Chiefs think they can weather the loss of Rice until his return Oct. 19 for a game against the Raiders.

“It wasn't a surprise,” Veach told a small group of reporters Thursday. “It was communicated to us, and we were certainly made aware a few days prior to cutdown day that this was a better-than-50 percent shot that this would get resolved.”

Rice pleaded guilty last month to two third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury. As part of his plea agreement from the March 2024 crash on a Dallas highway, prosecutors said, Rice also received a sentence of five years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail as a condition of his probation.

The NFL had to wait until the legal process was finished before launching its own internal investigation. There was a hearing set for Sept. 30 before former federal judge Sue L. Robinson to determine the length and terms of Rice's suspension, but that voided when Rice and his team agreed to the six-game banishment.

Along with the Chargers game in Brazil, Rice