The Chiefs begin OTA practices with one notable absence. How they should adjust
The first huddle of a summer Chiefs practice Thursday began with something of a trademark — the right-hand fingers of quarterback Patrick Mahomes wiggling in the air, requesting a play call.
He’s back, albeit in a limited capacity, throwing footballs to his teammates for (some of) the live practice drills for the first time since undergoing knee surgery to repair his ACL and LCL. It is, as you might guess, the primary focus of the Chiefs’ organized team activities (OTAs) this summer.
The lingering focus? It’s who isn’t here.
The Chiefs touted near-perfect attendance for the third phase of OTAs this week — near, not entirely, because wide receiver Rashee Rice is sitting in a Texas jail, rehabbing his knee after a clean-up procedure, because he violated his probation for testing positive for marijuana.
I’m not going to rehash the morality of the topic — we covered it extensively over the last week. But as the Chiefs embarked on their initial on-field preparations for 2026, it’s a reminder that beneath that conversation, there’s a less important but still quite significant football conversation.
Will the Chiefs plug Rashee Rice back atop their depth chart as their No. 1 receiver?
Will the league even let him play at the outset of the season?
Will his knee let him play?
Will he allow himself to play?
The Chiefs believe Rice will be healthy for training camp in a couple of months, and they’re not yet completely sure whether he will face another NFL suspension. But it’s the last in the aforementioned list of questions that Rice continues to make the most pressing — and the one that ought to drive the football discussion. It is also, by the way, the one thing within his control.
His reliability.
His availability.
Rice has participated in just 12 of the past 37 games, playoffs included, and while some of that is bad luck, some of it has been his own creation.
Either way, at a time of year in which they are installing their offense, the evidence suggests, if not demands, the Chiefs install a plan that does not prioritize a player who has not prioritized them.
To be sure, the temptation will be there to build around Rice. He is the most talented offensive weapon they have, considering future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce will turn 37 by the time the team hits its early season bye. They didn’t add to the wide receiver room in free agency and waited until the fifth round of the NFL Draft to address it, when they plucked Cincinnati receiver Cyrus Allen.
It leaves Rice as the go-to guy. Over his past 18 games, he has accumulated 963 yards after catch, the most by any player over an 18-game stretch for the past eight seasons. His 120 receptions over his last 18 games trails only Ja’Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Malik Nabers. That’s the kind of company he keeps.
The problem? His 18 games, unlike his counterparts, have been stretched across the last three seasons.
He’s dominant, as long as you include the most obvious and glaring asterisk:
*when available.
The Chiefs can be emotionally enticed by the prospect of the production.
They have to be rationally persuaded by the reality, and then adjust accordingly.
If they won’t pull the plug on the player — which they do not remotely appear prepared to do — it’s within their own interest to plug the gap his absence would create.
They can construct a plan to feature Rice — to feature their best option in the passing game — so long as their reaction to the hypothetical possibility of playing without him cannot be what now? But rather rests here: We prepared for this throughout the summer. And throughout training camp in St. Joseph.
What better time for that preparation than now? That’s precisely what this summer has afforded them: time. And considering Rice isn’t participating in these non-contact practices, it’s an obvious opportunity to prepare as though his eventual presence would be a bonus, not a prerequisite, to fixing an offense that hasn’t ranked better than 15th in scoring in any of the last three years.
His fickle availability can and should reinvigorate a desire to build this year’s passing game around a concept rather than an individual player. That concept? Let the running game set everything up.
It’s what this offense so sorely missed last season, and what it has most obviously addressed in the offseason. They are best prepared to move forward with running game that will help to set up a more effective passing game, regardless of who is throwing and catching the passes.
But when you can’t be sure who will catch passes, it amplifies the point.
The Chiefs’ offense needs Rice in order to be at its best.
But they’d be best to prepare for the alternative.