Rashee Rice is accepting a six-game suspension, as seemed reasonable all along for a guy who pled guilty to two felonies. Now we know for sure.
That was just one of the multitude of wide receiver developments today. Ian talks about the Adam Thielen trade elsewhere on the site. Here are my thoughts on the rest of the notable developments at the position.
Rashee Rice. Rice will miss the first six games of the season. The last Update had him projected as if he missed about 5 games, so he probably won't move down too much in tomorrow's Cheat Sheet. The development is a good thing in the sense that the other possibility involved him playing the first three weeks of the season and then being suspended. With this, at least it'll be over with, and Rice will rejoin the team in Week 7.
Looking at the PPR rankings, for me it's about 50th at the position before I'd consider drafting him. That's where you're getting to players I wouldn't want to have to start, so I can lump in a guy you can't start for 7 of the first 10 weeks (Kansas City has its bye in Week 10) with those undesirable starters. So basically I probably will not have Rice on any of my teams. It's a long time to wait and potentially tie up a bench spot (some leagues have IR spots for suspended players, some do not), and by the time he comes back, if Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown are playing well, maybe they ease him in. With those guys, this news bumps Worthy up about 3 spots in PPR, I'd debate him and Metcalf around the 20th spot. I'm no more interested in Brown than ever, I think he's just a guy and Kansas City will sprinkle on other wide receivers. Worthy the beneficiary.
(BTW, in case you missed the news, I think one of Rice's Kansas City teammates got engaged yesterday.)
Worthy, incidentally, really took off the second half of last season. He caught 59 passes on the year, but just over twice as many in the final nine weeks (40) as the first nine weeks (19; Rice played in four of those games). And then he went out and caught 19 passes and 3 TDs in Kansas City's three playoff games. Leaving out the playoffs, his improvement in the second half of the season was one of the better totals among all the regularly involved wide receivers around the league. (For this table, I included all wideouts to catch at least 40 passes the second half of the season, giving me a group of 28 players. Only seven saw a bigger uptick from the first half than Worthy.)
| WRS 2ND HALF OF 2024 (MINIMUM 40 CATCHES) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Yds | TD | PPR | Diff |
| Adam Thielen, Car. | 40 | 506 | 4 | 16.4 | 97% |
| Puka Nacua, LAR | 59 | 767 | 4 | 18.1 | 91% |
| Keenan Allen, Chi. | 49 | 547 | 5 | 14.9 | 69% |
| Courtland Sutton, Den. | 45 | 582 | 6 | 17.4 | 60% |
| Ja'Marr Chase, Cin. | 72 | 991 | 10 | 29.2 | 55% |
| Mike Evans, T.B. | 48 | 669 | 5 | 21.1 | 49% |
| Jordan Addison, Min. | 44 | 602 | 7 | 16.3 | 48% |
| Xavier Worthy, K.C. | 40 | 403 | 4 | 13.9 | 46% |
| Davante Adams, 2tms | 53 | 679 | 6 | 19.9 | 45% |
| DJ Moore, Chi. | 61 | 592 | 3 | 16.2 | 38% |
| Tee Higgins, Cin. | 44 | 570 | 7 | 21.0 | 37% |
| Ladd McConkey, LAC | 47 | 709 | 3 | 17.2 | 34% |
| Brian Thomas, Jac. | 52 | 687 | 5 | 19.3 | 33% |
| Tyreek Hill, Mia. | 47 | 513 | 5 | 14.4 | 31% |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown, Det. | 67 | 799 | 6 | 20.4 | 25% |
| Jameson Williams, Det. | 41 | 640 | 5 | 15.3 | 24% |
| Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Sea. | 50 | 562 | 3 | 15.9 | 14% |
| Drake London, Atl. | 50 | 719 | 3 | 17.5 | 11% |
| Jakobi Meyers, L.V. | 48 | 597 | 2 | 15.2 | 11% |
| Terry McLaurin, Was. | 40 | 498 | 7 | 16.5 | 7% |
| Jauan Jennings, S.F. | 52 | 571 | 3 | 14.3 | 1% |
| Malik Nabers, NYG | 54 | 647 | 4 | 18.1 | -1% |
| A.J. Brown, Phil. | 44 | 635 | 4 | 16.4 | -4% |
| Wan'Dale Robinson, NYG | 42 | 356 | 1 | 10.5 | -5% |
| Justin Jefferson, Min. | 55 | 750 | 5 | 17.8 | -9% |
| CeeDee Lamb, Dall. | 48 | 534 | 2 | 16.5 | -12% |
| Cooper Kupp, LAR | 42 | 508 | 4 | 14.6 | -24% |
| Garrett Wilson, NYJ | 41 | 441 | 2 | 12.1 | -31% |
Tim Patrick and Isaac TeSlaa. Detroit traded Tim Patrick to Jacksonville. Patrick goes from having minimal value in Detroit to minimal value in Jacksonville. The intriguing thing is cementing TeSlaa, one of the stars of the preseason, as Detroit's No. 3. And their No. 2, Jameson Williams, is kind of a hit or miss guy at times, so just maybe TeSlaa gets more targets than expected. The lone negative is that I've been able to get TeSlaa very cheaply in drafts and that probably won't be happening anymore. I don't want to oversell him because he's still a raw rookie and the No. 3 on a team that will be throwing to its running backs and tight ends plenty. But I could see myself thinking about him in the mid- to late-50s -- again, around a lot of guys who look kind of shaky in starting lineups. But I suppose there will be somebody in most drafts who like him more than that and are willing to take him before me.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kendrick Bourne. One guy was released by Seattle, the other by New England. San Francisco quickly signed MVS, and apparently they're interested in Bourne, too. They've got some injury issues at the position. Lots of positions, really. Zero interest in either receiver, at their previous or new homes, but I suppose they collectively take some of the shine off Ricky Pearsall. But not much. I think they're insurance policies for the 49ers, with Jauan Jennings (calf/contract) iffy for the start of the season. MVS's departure helps Tory Horton in Seattle, but we were comfortable saying the rookie fifth-rounder had blown by Valdes-Scantling anyway.
In sum, I like Worthy and TeSlaa a little more than I did a few hours ago. So does everyone else, unfortunately, but that's how it goes. Regarding the Thielen news, I think it's a bit of a negative for Jordan Addison, but who knows, when he returns in Week 4 maybe Thielen or Jefferson will be dealing with an injury or something anyway. I will still draft Minnesota's top 2 about as usual.
--Andy Richardson