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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was activated ahead of the team's Sunday matchup against their AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders, making his highly anticipated 2025 NFL season debut.
Leading up to the Chiefs-Raiders game, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS Sports broadcaster Tony Romo spoke highly of the Chiefs and sent a subtle warning to the rest of the league amid Rice's return.
"We've never actually seen 'Hollywood' Brown, Rice, Tyquan Thornton, (Travis) Kelce, everyone healthy on the field at the same time," Romo said. "They've been getting better because (Xavier) Worthy has taken off. I mean, it really changes the entire dynamic of how teams play them because they're worried about the down the field spread, which has opened up everything. And now, when you get Rice, you're going to have that guy inside."
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"I just feel like the sky's the limit for this team. People wrote them off way too fast," Romo added.
Rice was activated by the Chiefs after serving a six-game suspension from the NFL to open the season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.
He also missed the majority of the 2024 season after suffering a knee injury (LCL), making his Week 7 debut his first regular-season game in more than a year.
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Rice is a big (6-foot-1, 204 pounds), powerful, competitive perimeter receiver who thrives in the middle of the field with natural yards-after-catch instincts.
While Worthy and Thornton are the burners, both with sub-4.3 40-yard dash times, Rice wins contested targets, works intermediate routes and can turn short completions into massive gains.
Those traits made him a go-to target as a rookie, posting 938 receiving yards (second on the team, behind only Travis Kelce), and seven touchdowns (led the team) on 79 catches.
He was also on pace for an elite output before the injury last season. In four games, Rice had 288 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 24 receptions, putting him on pace to finish with roughly 1,224 receiving yards, 102 receptions and nine touchdowns. That would have placed him seventh in the league in yardage, above names like Malik Nabers, CeeDee Lamb and Brock Bowers.
With QB Patrick Mahomes playing at an MVP level, getting Rice back immediately boosts an offense that already ranks top 10 in passing yards (241.3 per game) and scoring (25.8 points per game).
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