Rashee
Rice.
Rashee
Rice.
SMU· 6'1"· 204 lb· 4.51s 40
"Rice never needed to be open — he needed the ball in the air, and SMU spent four years proving that a contact catch and a broken arm tackle count the same as separation."Pre-draft read
Rice is a big-bodied Z/big-slot receiver whose game runs through contact. SMU aligned him wide, in the slot and in condensed splits, and the constant was a wide catch radius plus the strength to finish through a defender's arms. He high-points, adjusts late and plays the ball in the air like a rebounder, winning back-shoulder and boundary throws without clean separation.
The second trait is what happens after the catch. He takes a slant or a hitch, drops his pads and turns a six-yard target into a first down by breaking the first arm tackle. He is a build-up strider rather than a twitchy release artist, so vertical wins come from stacking corners, not shaking them. The signature: contested-catch strength and YAC violence in one frame.
Timing-and-option West Coast passing game that lives on slants, glance routes and choice concepts from the slot, with condensed splits and heavy motion
Year 1: inside-out No. 2 who owns the option game and screen package on early downs. Ceiling: a 100-target primary target who carries a passing game on YAC and third-down conversions.
A vertical Air Raid clone that asks him to win press releases in isolation on the boundary every snap and beat NFL corners deep off the line
He is a scheme-fit multiplier: the more a play caller manufactures a clean release for him, the closer he plays to his ceiling.
Rashee Rice | SMU Mustangs WR | Career Highlights
Full college career reel: contested catches, slants and YAC.
Rashee Rice Senior Season Highlights - SMU WR 2022
2022 senior tape: 96 catches, 1,355 yards, 10 touchdowns.
Rashee Rice SMU College Career Highlights (Welcome to the Chiefs)
Pre-draft cut-up focused on catch radius and run after catch.
A four-year SMU receiver who arrived as a rotational freshman and left as the American Athletic Conference's most productive pass catcher, Rice is the rare Group of Five profile whose tape and numbers agree. He is a big target with strong hands, real toughness over the middle and enough long speed to threaten a safety, and his football identity is contact — winning the ball in a crowd and punishing arm tackles once he owns it.
The production curve is the argument. He grew from 403 yards as a freshman to 683 and then 670 with nine scores, before a senior year of 96 catches, 1,355 yards and 10 touchdowns that made him the focal point of every plan he faced. The flags are real too: a route tree that leaned on slants, hitches and go balls, releases that get stalled by physical press, and a level of competition that rarely put a future NFL corner across from him.
The board had him as a Day 2 receiver with WR2 upside, a range of late second to early third depending on how much a room trusted the release package. Kansas City taking him at 55 fit their profile exactly: a target who wins immediately on option routes and short throws, in an offense that would let him play from the slot and let Patrick Mahomes solve the separation problem.
- 01
Contested-catch strength
Plays through hands and forearms at the catch point, with the frame and grip to finish throws that are not fully open.
- 02
Yards after catch
Turns short targets into first downs by lowering his pads and breaking the first tackle rather than looking for the sideline.
- 03
Hands and radius
Late, natural adjustments on back-shoulder and off-target throws, with very few body catches on a heavy senior-year target load.
- 04
Alignment flexibility
Logged real reps wide, in the slot and in condensed splits, so a coordinator can move him without shrinking the route menu.
- 05
Production curve
Improved every year at SMU and finished with 96 catches and 1,355 yards as a senior against constant bracket attention.
- 01
Release package
Physical press corners can stall his first two steps; he wins with strength late instead of beating hands early off the line.
- 02
Route nuance
The tree leaned on slants, hitches and vertical stems, and the intermediate breaks lack the tempo change NFL corners will demand.
- 03
Long speed ceiling
Build-up strider who stacks defenders over distance rather than separating instantly, so he rarely runs away from safeties.
- 04
Competition level
The AAC schedule rarely produced a future NFL corner across from him, which inflates the ease of some of his best reps.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.51sp50
- Vertical
- 41inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | SMU | 11 | 25 | 403 | 1 |
| 2020 | SMU | 10 | 48 | 683 | 5 |
| 2021 | SMU | 12 | 64 | 670 | 9 |
| 2022 | SMU | 12 | 96 | 1355 | 10 |
| Career | — | 45 | 233 | 3111 | 25 |
Verified season-by-season against cfbstats (2020-2022) and footballdb game logs (2019); season totals sum to the career line.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
High-volume inside target who lives on option routes and contact catches rather than pure separation.
The version where every short target becomes a designed-run threat and the YAC volume carries an offense.
The floor if availability and off-field issues keep a talented YAC weapon from stacking full seasons.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Rashee Rice emerged as a key receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs in his rookie season, helping them win Super Bowl LVIII. He caught 79 passes for 938 yards and 7 touchdowns during the regular season.
Kansas City used him as a starter almost immediately. He opened 2023 as a rotation piece, then took over the slot by midseason and finished with 79 catches for 938 yards and 7 touchdowns as a rookie, before becoming Patrick Mahomes' most trusted target through the Super Bowl LVIII run. In 2024 he was on a historic pace through four games — 24 catches, 288 yards, 2 touchdowns — when a knee injury ended his season. A six-game suspension to open 2025 and a late-December concussion limited him to eight games, but he still produced 53 catches for 571 yards and 5 touchdowns and finished top-five among receivers in points per game. He enters 2026 healthy and back in the starting lineup after his first preseason action since that injury.
The evaluation held up on the field and missed on the availability. Everything scouts liked — the contact catches, the YAC, the instant chemistry on option routes — showed up by Week 8 of his rookie year, and the release concerns mattered less in an offense that schemes him free. What no report priced in was 22 missed games in two seasons from injury and discipline. On a per-snap basis he is a first-round outcome from pick 55; on a career basis the availability is the only thing standing between him and that label.
Data note: Verified season-by-season against cfbstats (2020-2022) and footballdb game logs (2019); season totals sum to the career line.