How Much is Rashee Rice Worth in Fantasy Trade After 2 TDs in Season Debut for Chiefs?

Did Rashee Rice immediately emerge as a true WR1 in fantasy football after his season debut on Sunday?

There’s certainly an argument to be made that he did. The Kansas City Chiefs wideout caught seven passes (on 10 targets) for 42 yards and two touchdowns against the Las Vegas Raiders, good for 23.2 fantasy points in PPR formats.

Rice was trending toward being a dynamic option for the Chiefs—and fantasy players—in his first two seasons, with 103 catches for 1,226 yards and nine touchdowns in 20 games. He was excellent in four games last year before injury cut his season short, with 24 catches for 288 yards and two scores.

There was little doubt that once he was healthy he would be the top option in this passing game. Travis Kelce is no longer an elite option at tight end, while Xavier Worthy is more of a gadget play option and deep threat and players like Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton aren’t leading men.

All of those names listed are probably why you should still consider Rice more of a high-end WR2 option than a true WR1, however. Patrick Mahomes spread the ball to nine different pass-catchers on Sunday, with an array of options that makes Kansas City’s passing game tough to defend but also could limit some of Rice’s target share on a week-to-week basis. (There’s also the fact that this was a pretty porous Las Vegas secondary he was facing to consider.)

Yes, he led the team in receptions on Sunday and had twice as many targets as any of his teammates. It’s just hard to consider him in an upper tier of fantasy wideouts that includes players like Puka Nacua, Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra St. Brown or Jaxon Smith-Njigba, among others.

Whether Rice can crack into that next tier remains to be seen, but it’s probably not wise to pay WR1 prices to acquire him until you know he’ll regularly be matching Sunday’s upside. Rice isn’t going to find the end zone every week—his receptions, yardage and target share are going to determine his ultimate worth.

For now, only pay WR2 prices to acquire him. If you’re the seller, however, you may be able to fetch WR1 prices after Sunday.

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