Will Xavier Worthy Or Rashee Rice Be WR1 For the Chiefs?
Fantasy

Will Xavier Worthy Or Rashee Rice Be WR1 For the Chiefs?

Ian Hartitz makes points for and against Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy being the top target for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2026.

Published

We've seen the flashes for both Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy. For Rice, it was the back half of his rookie year before a Year 2 breakout was halted because of a season-ending knee injury. Then it's been off-the-field issues that have kept him off the field more often than any of us would like to see. For Worthy, it was an electrifying performance in garbage time of the 2025 Super Bowl with two late touchdowns before an injury in last season's season opener upended any momentum he could build. Now could they be heading into seasons where one or both can have breakout performances? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Kansas City Chiefs Team Preview.

Are Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy worth the risk at ADP?

Let's start with Rice, who was recently rehabbing his knee while in jail before his release on June 16. That, ladies and mostly gentlemen, is the first time I've ever typed that sentence. It's unclear if the offense that landed him behind bars, violating the terms of his probation by smoking the reefer, will result in another suspension, but it certainly seems possible. Click here for a more thorough read on the legal possibilities of the situation from real-life lawyer, fantasy footballer, bad poker player (just kidding) Drew Davenport.

*IF* Rice is healthy and allowed to play football, he'll in all likelihood be ranked as a top-12 receiver in PPR scoring. After all, that's exactly what the 26-year-old has been since about the halfway point of his rookie season … when available.

  • 2023 Week 7-18: 15.3 PPR points per game (WR14 during stretch)
  • 2024 Weeks 1-3: 21.6 (would have been WR2 on the season)
  • 2025 Weeks 7-15: 18 (WR9)

Reminder: Style points don't count for anything extra in fantasy land; Rice's constant diet of screens and easy designed touches is an absolute godsend in full-PPR scoring, even if this causes his fantasy ranking to be so much higher than his standing among the league's best real-life receivers.

Consider:

  • 11 of his 16 career touchdowns have been from 12 or fewer yards. That's some 2025 Dallas Goedert shit, but it's apparently cool when Rice does it.
  • 28.7% of Rice's career targets have been screens—tops among 73 WRs with 150-plus targets since 2023.
  • Rice's 4.7-yard average target depth is the lowest in that same group.

You know how we've grown to hate the Chiefs' ultra-reliance on RPOs and short passes? Well, Rice has been the primary beneficiary of this post-Tyreek madness. And hey, the dude is explosive enough after the catch to make a lot of good things happen with the opportunities; just realize there's some heightened risk here with anything from the Kansas City offense overly changing in the schematic department. Rice has caught *one* career pass thrown 30+ yards downfield in 28 career games during which Mahomes has been foaming at the mouth to do anything to get the deep ball going again. Maybe it's a part of Rice's game waiting to be unlocked, although this sure seems to have been a good, smart, successful group in recent history–don't you think Andy Reid would have featured Rice with a more complete route tree if he thought it was a good idea?

Rice is my WR21. The other Fantasy Life rankers have him WR10, WR17 and WR23. His ADP is anywhere between WR8 and WR14 across the major sites. There are just too many guys like Emeka Egbuka, Luther Burden and Ladd McConkey that I really like and believe in to either wait for the NFL, or Rice himself, to tank his fantasy value (again).

And then there's Xavier Worthy, who, like Rice, didn't really get going until the back half of his rookie year. Overall, he averaged a robust 17.1 PPR points per game (WR15!) from Weeks 11-Super Bowl, although his decrease in aDOT (11.9 vs. 7.5) reflects the potential for some of these opportunities to dry up when Rice is healthy and available.

Which happened … after he returned from dislocating his shoulder via Travis Swift friendly fire on his third snap of the season. That is the big thing: Andy Reid himself said the Chiefs didn't want to put certain plays on Worthy's plate even after he returned:

"That was a unique deal … We kind of, after that, were afraid to do certain things with him. I think him coming back healthy opens up that whole picture you saw during [last year's] training camp, where he had a whole bunch of different routes in there."

Even giving Worthy a complete redshirt for working as just the WR57 in PPR points per game upon returning from injury doesn't exactly lead to an open-and-shut evaluation. As mentioned before, Worthy didn't really get a ton going as a rookie until the Chiefs started leaning into more layups for the skinny speedster.

The Mahomes-Worthy downfield connection has been, ahem, rough, but not all the miscues have exactly been on the receiver.

Still, I'm a fan of Worthy at the price and honestly the entire WR4 tier in general. Things get a bit dicey after the top 50 or so wideouts are off the board, but this is a fun stretch with upside scenarios for all parties involved!

image.png

Additionally, the Chiefs have one, and maybe even two if you're REALLY sick in the head, literal last-round darts to consider:

  • Small-sample be damned: Tyquan Thornton's average of 23.1 yards per reception actually topped Alec Pierce's league-leading mark last season if you move the qualifying threshold low enough. And he looked good doing it! Suddenly looking at a full-time fantasy role with Hollywood Brown out of the picture, Thornton is a great best ball dart who should get you at least a few boom weeks—and you don't have to worry about predicting when they'll happen!
  • The more sick, twisted dart: Jalen Royals, who is seemingly the next-man-up behind Rice. There was hype about this last training camp as well, but 1.) Royals was a rookie, 2.) He missed time early with knee tendinitis, and 3.) JuJu Smith-Schuster (now on the Giants) was then signed at the end of August and took over the spot behind Rice. If you're REALLY in the camp of people who expect Rice to get suspended or mess up again, Royals should be in strong consideration with your literal final pick.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Rashee Rice
    RasheeRiceQ
    WRKCKC
    PPG
    14.7
    Proj
    190.9
  2. Xavier Worthy
    XavierWorthyQ
    WRKCKC
    PPG
    6.4
    Proj
    128.6

Published