Holy shit!ROFL You covered all your bases for sure. Hahahaha

Gotta be chiefqueen.

It's hard to see a better-case scenario than Rice being ready around midseason next year.

If he gets suspended, I think you can play some games with when you "activate him" from his injury recovery. If the suspension is, say 4 games, and you expect him to be ready around week 10, you can put him on the preseason PUP, activate him, and then let him "serve" his suspension while technically eligible but not, in reality, ready to play.

If you're projecting an earlier return, obviously you don't have to do that. Or if the suspension is 8 games and you're expecting him ready week 10, you don't mess with PUP at all.

Rice is going to get suspended. There's zero chance the NFL just lets it slide.

Rice's contract situation is going to be interesting. Unfortunately due to the injury (not his fault) and the likely suspension (his fault) he probably won't be able to put together a truly elite season until year 4 at the earliest, his last year under contract. Can they extend him for cheaper because of that? Does he give the team a discount for his offseason tomfoolery? He was likely on his way to somewhere in the range of a 1,200-1,300 yard, 10-12 TD season that would have earned him a lot of money even with the suspension.

https://athlonsports.com/nfl/kansas-...ffs-super-bowl

After enjoying their first-round playoff bye week, the No. 1 seed Kansas City Chiefs will be back in action on Saturday for a divisional round date with the No. 4 seed Houston Texans.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' offense will need a strong showing to overcome Houston's defense, which intercepted Justin Herbert four times in the wild-card round.

While they won't have No. 1 wide receiver Rashee Rice this weekend — out since Sept. 29 after suffering a serious knee injury in Week 4 — the tiniest sliver of hope remains that the 24-year-old star could return for the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, should the Chiefs make it for the third consecutive season.

Rice shared a 41-second progress video on his Instagram story on Monday while rehabbing his knee at the Chiefs facilities. In it, he can be seen doing weighted single-leg squats, indicating substantial progress in his journey back to the field.

Rice had surgery to repair his injured LCL and hamstring tendon on Oct. 8 with the expectation that his 2024 season would be over.

Despite some initial optimism from NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said after the surgery that Rice's recovery timeline would track pretty closely to that of a player who tore their ACL — typically around nine months.

"It's probably the same result, though, as you'd get time-wise for an ACL," Reid told reporters. "It takes a while for that to come back."

Still, the video raises the question: Just how realistic is the chance of Rice being ready to go by the second week of February? Don't hold your breath.

At the very least, the team would need to open up a 21-day practice window for Rice, who was placed on injured reserve on Oct. 3. The latest Kansas City could make that move and still have a chance to activate Rice for Super Bowl Sunday would be this Sunday, Jan. 19.

Plus, according to former Chiefs Super Bowl champion and All-Pro offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz on X, "Yes single leg squats means he’s 4 weeks away from being able to do everything a WR needs to do on the field and also get hit by defenders."

Even if Schwartz's informed perspective held true, Rice's return to live action is all but sure to come post-Super Bowl and later into the team's offseason program.

Damn. Feels like he missed being ready for the Super Bowl by 2-3 weeks.

Ain't happening.

Nah, not happening nor should they push it.

Just get him ready for 2025 opening night banner raising.

No chance.

Watson doesn't really present a risk of re-injury any greater than being healthy would have.

That ain't the case with Rice.

He's gone until summer - accept it.

Think Rice has told Mahomes the next pic he throws, you’re on your own?

Lmao. Schwartz. Was being sarcastic. He was mocking Brad Henson on twitter. Henson posted Rices video and mentioned a possible SB return

That’s funny Lucas’s embarrassed himself like that

Certainly seems like he'll be okay for next season!

OR he'll have a 49-50 week period to be ready for Superbowl LX

I'm amazed that anyone could read that and not realize it's sarcasm immediately.