Rashee Rice played his first game in over a year on Sunday, helping the Chiefs demolish the Raiders, 31-0.
Rice had a pair of touchdown catches in the win — opening the scoring with a 2-yard TD and grabbing a 3-yard score to end the second quarter.
Rice was Patrick Mahomes’ most targeted receiver, as the quarterback passed to him 10 times. Rice ended up with seven receptions for 42 yards.
“Listen, it was great to have him back,” head coach Andy Reid said after the game. “I think you saw him — the trust that Pat has in him which is so important for Pat and the guys, but it was great. I thought the whole receiving crew did a nice job. But it was great to have him in there and the energy that he brings I think is tremendous.”
Reid added that having Rice back does open up different things offensively — although with the Raiders’ dreadful performance, Sunday’s contest may not be a proper gauge of that.
“He did a great job,” Reid said. “I was a little cautious with him on how many plays and all that. I thought he came out and functioned at a high level for being gone for all this time. It’s crazy that he can come back and do what he did and do it at the level that he did it at. We’ll gradually build him up. We’ll get his reps up here a little bit as we go.
“You got to be careful with that when somebody’s been off for a while. I thought all of them together did some really good things. Then at the end, Xavier [Worthy] had another [end] around that he did very well with. There’s a lot of things happening there that are positive.”
Only two of the Chiefs played every one of Kansas City’s 81 offensive snaps — left tackle Jaylon Moore and left guard Kingsley Suamataia — with Mahomes and the rest of the starting line playing 65. Rice was on the field for 33 of those reps.
We’ll see how Rice’s playing time expands in Week 8 when the Chiefs host the Commanders on Monday night.
