Will the Jaguars Miss KC's Rashee Rice in Week 5?

When Liam Coen looks at his work calendar for 2025, he's going to see his Jacksonville Jaguars only battling one playoff team from 2024, the Houston Texans, in the first month of the schedule, but they are actually against two teams, the Bengals and 49ers, that are looking to rebound after a disappointing downturn in their play, and improving Carolina in Week 1.

The ante is raised in Week 5, as the defending conference champion Kansas City Chiefs visit Duval for Prime Time on Monday Night Football. However, QB Patrick Mahomes may be without a key weapon in Wide Receiver Rashee Rice.

A third-year player is facing significant consequences and is likely to be suspended after pleading guilty last week to charges related to a six-vehicle collision that occurred last year. This incident involved serious bodily injury and took place on a Dallas highway where Rice was racing at speeds of 119 miles per hour. As a result of his actions, Rice was charged with two third-degree felonies, which culminated in a sentence of five years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail.

The NFL is expected to follow suit with a punishment as well. But the gravity of the suspension has been speculated with a plethora of possibilities. On a recent edition of the Kansas City Chiefs Insider Podcast, Chiefs on SI Lead Beat Reporter Dominic Minchella discussed the possible suspension scenarios and how Head Coach Andy Reid will proceed.

"Who knows when the NFL is going to hand down the suspension or how long it's going to be, whether it is closer to the beginning of the season and it lasts for eight games, or it's happens relatively soon, and he knows the time frame, maybe it's about three or four games that he gets suspended for," said Minchella.

The Chiefs are proceeding as if it's business as usual, though, with Rice getting full reps and continuing as a crucial component of the offense in KC.

"Regardless, with all the what ifs being up in the air, it's the reasoning for the Kansas City Chiefs wanting to move forward with a guy who is a firecracker on offense when he's healthy, we've seen what Rashee Rice could do in his rookie season, getting close to 1,000 receiving yards, scoring multiple touchdowns, and even through the first four weeks last season with the Chiefs, before he went down to injury, he was on a trajectory of being one of the best wide receivers in the league."

"Last year, he had 288 receiving yards in four games. While it might not seem like a lot, the way that he was playing, he was averaging more than 10 yards per reception, he was a suitable option for first downs, and he has looked like to be the wide receiver that Patrick Mahomes could target for the foreseeable future."

If the suspension is more than four games, the Jaguars get a reprieve. However, if the ban goes four games or fewer, Jaguars CBs Jourdan Lewis, Tyson Campbell, and Travis Hunter will need to be on red alert.

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