Sometimes, it truly does pay to be lucky rather than good. In the Chiefs‘ case, they’re usually both — after all, a team does not win consecutive Super Bowl titles on luck alone — but Patrick Mahomes will breathe a heavy sigh of relief amid the latest injury update for one of the stars of the Kansas City offense.
Chiefs players and NFL fans were sickened on Sunday when Mahomes accidentally ran into receiver Rashee Rice after throwing a first-quarter interception, a move that undercut the second-year standout and ended his day. Although Kansas City defeated the Los Angeles Chargers to move to 4-0 on the young season, little has been divulged about Rice‘s condition — which is unusual in the face of the potentially-serious injury he suffered to the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Rice’s injury may not be as bad as initially feared
Ordinarily, an injury as serious as an ACL tear is diagnosed quickly. A strong suspicion on the field is usually confirmed by subsequent imaging before a treatment plan is laid out for a player’s eventual return. But that hasn’t happened with Rice, whose stellar start to the 2024 season put his offseason of controversy firmly in the rear view (no pun intended).
Prominent sports doctors on X/Twitter believe that no news is good news when it comes to Rice’s knee, and the Chiefs themselves have indicated that more testing is needed to determine the extent of Rice’s injury — with a final answer still days away, potentially.
Rice hasn’t completely escaped some time on the sidelines, though. It remains likely that the former second-round pick has a deep bone bruise or suffered a sprain to an adjacent ligament, which would still rule him out for several weeks and force Kansas City to overhaul its offense again.
That said, “overhauling the offense” comes easier when you have a quarterback of Mahomes’ incredible ability, as well as a tight end as talented as Travis Kelce — who couldn’t have timed his “breakout” game against the Chargers any better, in light of Rice’s anticipated absence.
