Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice is a controversial figure. Has been since he came in the league, and that trend continues this year, although the source of the latest Rice controversy is very different from what we've seen in the past.
Rice, of course, has returned from the suspension that kept him out for the first six games. He seems to have put that debacle behind him, but now there are issues surfacing about his on-field performance.
The mercurial Chiefs wideout has been brilliant at times. He’s an absolute terror when he gets loose in the field, and he’s been making plays all over the field. Rice is Kansas City’s best offensive weapon, and he’s given a way to for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to take more deep shots down the field.
But his big plays and big stats haven’t been enough. Rice has also had some reliability issues, and they’ve surfaced at critical points in big games where the Chiefs need him the most.
It’s happened in back-to-back games now, first against the Denver Broncos in Kansas City’s 22-19 road loss, then again in Thursday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys. The drops have been instrumental in dropping the Chiefs back to .500, and they’ve set up a scenario in which the Kansas City basically has to win out to have a realistic chance of making the playoffs.
In a way it feels unfair to criticize Rice given how great he’s been since his return, but that’s the reality of the Chiefs season this year. Their record in one-score games has been Kansas City’s Achilles heel, and the brutal schedule has made it fell like the Chiefs have to be nearly perfect to win given some of the competition they’ve been facing.
That will continue to be the case going forward. Kansas City’s next game is against the Houston Texans, and the Chiefs will be facing the Houston Texans and their brutal defense with a banged-up offensive line. That means Mahomes will probably spend most of the game running for his life, and Rice will be an essential safety valve.
At this point it seems unlikely that the Chiefs will win out given their schedule, which also includes games against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos. If they’re going to pull it off, though, they need Rice to both brilliant and perfect, regardless of how unfair of an ask that may be.