Fantasy Football 2026 Impact Of Rashee Rice Probation Violation
Jorge Martin examined the fantasy football implications of Kansas City Chiefs WR Rashee Rice violating his probation and being sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Rashee Rice has been taken into custody at a Dallas County Court after testing positive for marijuana, a violation of his probation stemming from a high-speed accident involving multiple vehicles.
He’s set to serve 30 days in jail for the violation, which would mean he’s going to miss the Chiefs’ OTAs and mandatory minicamp, the latter of which ends on June 11. He’s currently set for release on June 16. Editor's Update: Hours after the news broke about Rice's probation violation, it became public that Rice underwent a cleanup surgery on his knee to remove loose debris and will sideline him for two months. That timeline would be close to mid-July, which would be less than two weeks before the start of training camp.
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Rashee Rice Probation Violation Fantasy Football Impact
Rice’s transgressions with the law have led to uncertainty for a career that got off to a solid start in 2023 when he caught 79 passes (on 102 targets) for 938 yards and 7 TDs. He was a main target of Patrick Mahomes during that season’s postseason run, finishing with a composite receiving line of 26-262-1 over four games to help the Chiefs to the first of their two consecutive Super Bowl titles.
In 2024, he suffered a season-ending knee after a four-game breakout, and off-field issues have caused him to be in the news for the wrong reasons. Rice looked to be primed for a big season after clearing injury and his suspension to start last season to catch 53 of 78 targets for 571 yards and 5 scores. His Utilization Score of 81 painted a promising picture for 2026, especially after he was cleared of any possible further disciplinary action this offseason in a separate incident.
Now with him missing the May-June portion of the Chiefs’ offseason program, could Rice’s outlook for 2026 be further clouded?
2026 Fantasy Football Outlook
Rice came out of the 2026 free agency and NFL Draft season looking like a WR1 in fantasy. The Chiefs signed Kenneth Walker in free agency to give them something they haven’t had for most of the Mahomes era in KC—a solid running game to open things up in the passing game. Rice also saw the Chiefs neither sign nor draft any WR of significance this offseason, making it clear that he was headed into the season as the WR1.
Our fantasy football projections were just updated and have him drawing 122 targets, turning them into 89 catches for 983 yards and 7.4 TDs. His number of games played has just been dropped to 14 in these same projections. He’s now the WR8 in our fantasy football rankings, following the news.
Should Rice face league discipline after this latest transgression in the form of a suspension, it will throw the Chiefs’ passing game into quite a bit of uncertainty, especially considering Mahomes is recovering from December surgery to repair a torn ACL. His availability for training camp and the start of the season is in question.
With the possibility of Rice missing any time, Xavier Worthy saw his projected eceiving line increase to 53-616-7.4. The problem for the speedy Worthy is that other than a Super Bowl LIX performance of 8-157-2—with both TDs coming in garbage time—he has not lived up to the hype around his first-round selection in 2024. Travis Kelce, currently projected to see 92 targets, netting 68 catches for 666 yards and 4.8 TDs may also see more looks if Rice were to miss any time.
It will be well into the summer before we know if Rice is going to receive any further league discipline. On top of it, with the new information about his cleanup surgery, Rice may not be full speed at the start of training camp. We’ll be keeping an eye on the news to see what his participation level is and if either that or any league discipline could impact his availability for Week 1 or beyond.
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