After an extremely promising rookie season in which Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice became a fantasy football darling by catching 79 balls for 938 yards and seven touchdowns, it's been a rocky two years since. His 2024 and 2025 seasons were marred by injuries, poor decisions and suspensions, and we're now a few years out from Rice being a fantasy WR1.
Heading into the fourth and final year of his rookie deal, Rice's career is at a tipping point in 2026. If he can replicate his rookie year or even come close, he's likely commanding $20 million or more a year from the Chiefs or another team that signs him to be a star contributor in free agency in 2027. But if he gets hurt again, or makes another bad off-the-field decision, Rice could
join a long list of wide receivers who looked great as rookies but flamed out as veterans.
The question for fantasy drafters - which version of Rice are you betting on in 2026? And should you draft him in fantasy football this year?
The problem with drafting Rice in fantasy this year is that there's very little discount built in for how bad a bet he's been the last two season. Rice is usually somewhere around the 12th to 15th WR taken, which is really expensive considering the other options in that range.
And while being attached to Patrick Mahomes is historically a great thing for top WRs, are we sure that the Chiefs offense is going to look the same this year? Mahomes is coming off an ACL tear, Kansas City's big offseason move was giving running back Kenneth Walker $43 million in free agency and the other pass catchers in this offense either have one foot in retirement (Travis Kelce) or are young and unproven.
So if you're of the opinion that the Chiefs offense is going to flow through Walker as Mahomes eases his way back, there are much better wide receiver options in the third round than Rice. DeVonta Smith, Chris Olave and Tee Higgins all carry similar injury risk as Rice but still have overall less uncertainty. Let someone else take the bet on Rice and spread your risk to other parts of the draft.
Fantasy football wide receiver rankings
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Should you draft Chiefs WR Rashee Rice in fantasy this year?
