‘Patrick-Friendly’ Rashee Rice Showing Mental Progression to KC Chiefs
Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice was a major component of the Kansas City Chiefs' Sunday win over the Las Vegas Raiders. In the aftermath of the game, head coach Andy Reid referred to the second-round pick as "working to be more Patrick-friendly."
What exactly does "Patrick-friendly" mean? Everyone had their own definition of how Rice was attempting to make life easier for the man under center, Patrick Mahomes. There's no better example of that progress than a 10-target, eight-catch, 107-yard performance in Week 12, but it still doesn't explain the phrase Reid coined. It merely provides the ever-changing results of the process.
Reid went into a bit of detail about it on Monday, with Wednesday's media availability allowing him to dive further into Rice's development on the fly.
"Getting better at understanding how to play against these zones, these crazy zones that these defenses throw at you," Reid said. "And getting into space where you're available. It's not always the way it's drawn up on a piece of paper — you've got to have a feel. So when I say that, I'm saying he's got a feel and he's building in all of those different defenses and kind of seeing that and putting that together, which is good. There will keep being challenges. This will be a big challenge for him, this game here. But he's getting better every week at that."
Eleven games into his rookie campaign, Rice is emerging as the Chiefs' best player at the wide receiver position. Leading the group in targets (56), receptions (44), yards (527) and touchdowns (5), the No. 55 overall selection in this year's NFL Draft is stepping up to the plate in a legitimate way. As a result, the team has recently acknowledged that he's no longer a situation-specific player within the offense. Kansas City hinted at Rice growing more and more involved, which is exactly what happened on Sunday.
On the year, per Pro Football Focus, Rice has logged 179 snaps lined up in the slot and 175 lined up out wide. In Weeks 1-8, that split was 126 to 105 (54.5% slot distribution). Since then, however, that total comes out to 53 vs. 70 (43.1% in the slot). The Chiefs believe in their rookie wideout to handle not being sheltered a bit inside, which allows him to do more. The trust factor has immediately translated with Mahomes, thus making Rice more "Patrick-friendly." Mahomes says it stems from repetition.
"I think it's just how you work, I think that's the biggest thing," Mahomes said. "If guys continue to work and continue to practice and I get a feel for how they run routes and a feel for how they're seeing stuff on the football field, it just makes my job easier. Guys have done that throughout my career and he's done a great job of that in year one, which doesn't happen a lot of times with receivers. The goal for him now is to keep working, keep getting better and don't be satisfied with where he's at. Hopefully [it will] get him more bigger games as his career goes on."
Along with repetition, communication is something the Kansas City offense has desperately needed plenty of this year. With so many moving parts at the receiver position and multiple players trying to adjust to various roles, it becomes difficult for everyone to be on the same page at once. With injuries and other factors added on, it's easy to say that this isn't the most welcoming or simple opportunity for a first-year player to enter and see mostly immediate success. Rice has taken every single piece in stride, which is a reason why he doesn't repeat mistakes and the rest of his rookie season provides plenty of promise.
"He is, he's getting a lot better," Mahomes said. "He doesn't make the same mistakes, I think that's the biggest thing. There are little things here and there where we might not be on the same page but once we talk about it on the sideline, he doesn't make that mistake again. That's why you've seen he's gotten better and better throughout the season. It's one thing to be able to beat man coverage whenever you come into the NFL because that's played everywhere. But the zones are so much more complex than college — sometimes they have to recognize it on the fly. It's just about getting better and better throughout the season."
