The Kansas City Chiefs placed wide receiver Rashee Rice on injured reserve on Thursday with a knee injury, meaning he will miss at least four games.
Rice was injured in the first quarter of the Chiefs’ 17-10 victory over the host Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday when he took an inadvertent hit from his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes threw an interception to Los Angeles cornerback Kristian Fulton, whose 29-yard return ended when Rice came up from behind him and poked the ball loose. Mahomes was simultaneously trying to make a tackle as Rice forced the fumble, and the signal-caller crashed into Rice’s right knee.
The quarterback said on Thursday that he felt terrible that he hit Rice.
“I wasn’t really worried about myself,” Mahomes said. “I was worried about his injury and, hopefully, it wasn’t as bad as it looked because I was the one that hit him.”
While reports earlier this week said the Chiefs feared Rice tore his ACL, head coach Andy Reid said Thursday that the team is waiting for swelling to go down before further testing the knee.
“I think just wait-and-see is where we’re at,” Reid said. “For his sake, we’re really hoping things work out for the best, but let’s just see where it goes. Leave it up to the doctors to see. I’m definitely not a doctor.”
Rice, 24, already had been ruled out of Monday night’s home game against the New Orleans Saints. Kansas City (4-0) then has a bye week, followed by games at San Francisco on Oct. 20, at Las Vegas on Oct. 27 and at home against Tampa Bay on Nov. 4.
Rice is the Chiefs’ leading receiver in catches (24), targets (29), yards (288) and touchdowns (two, tied with Xavier Worthy).
A second-round selection by Kansas City in the 2023 NFL Draft out of SMU, Rice has hauled in 103 passes for 1,226 yards and nine TDs in 20 career regular-season games (12 starts).
–Field Level Media