Rashee Rice

Rashee Rice finished 2025 as the number 40 wide receiver in total PPR scoring — but here's the number that matters for draft prep: he was the number 5 wide receiver in PPR per game among players who suited up at least six times. That gap tells you everything in one sentence. When he played, he was a force. He only played eight games. The six-game suspension capped his ceiling before Week 1, and by the time he returned, the Chiefs were a 6-and-11 team searching for an identity. Rice didn't just slot back in — he became the focal point of the passing game almost immediately, ahead of Travis Kelce in per-game usage and ahead of everybody else in target volume. The headline is simple: Rice played like a top-five fantasy wide receiver on a per-game basis, on a team that missed the playoffs.

Now let's dig into the numbers, because they explain that per-game ranking cleanly. Across eight games, Rice caught 53 balls for 571 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns on 78 targets, plus a rushing touchdown on a goal-line direct snap. His average target share was 29 percent — a true alpha number, the kind of usage you see from a clear number-one option, not a complementary piece. He racked up 414 yards after the catch, the engine of his fantasy profile: short, schemed touches that turn into chunks. And the consistency held up. Rice averaged 18.8 PPR per game with a real floor — he cleared 18 points five times in eight games, hit 23-plus three times, and his two lowest outputs were a 9.8 against the Broncos and a 7.4 against the Texans, both losses where the entire Kansas City offense got muffed. Steady floor, genuine ceiling spikes — not boom-or-bust. On a passing attack that produced just plus 24.9 expected points added on 634 attempts, Rice was the reason that number wasn't worse.

The single play that captures Rice's season: fourth-and-3 from the Dallas 3-yard line, fourth quarter, Chiefs down 20 to 14. Mahomes took the shotgun snap and went short left to Rice for the touchdown — a 4th-down conversion, a red-zone score, and the exact high-leverage target that defined what Rice was to this offense when healthy. He finished that Dallas game with 8 catches for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns in a loss. That's the season in a single snap: target hog, red-zone go-to, doing his job even when the team around him couldn't finish.