The unknown status of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice has weighed heavily on the team since Rice went down with a serious knee injury early in KC’s Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The reporting regarding Rice’s status fluctuated, but on October 7, information eventually settled on Rice’s injury: Rice would have surgery to repair his knee and his 2024 season would “likely” be over.
On October 8, the specifics of Rice’s surgery made the rounds, with reporting indicating that Rice had an LCL surgery in addition to a “repair done to Rice’s hamstring tendon.” Reports indicated that Rice had no structural damage to his ACL or meniscus, providing him a clear path to full recovery despite the procedure still sidelining him for the rest of the year.
On Monday, October 14, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid provided clarity on Rice’s timeline to return and added a new detail to the specifics of Rice’s surgery.
“His surgery was not his ACL, it was the posterolateral corner, there was damage there,” Reid said. “It’s probably the same result, though, as you’d get time-wise for an ACL. It takes a while for that to come back. He’ll get into his rehab and get rolling on that as we go here.”
Reid’s specific mention of “the posterolateral corner” throws a bit of confusion into the details of Rice’s damaged ligaments, but the second half of Reid’s comments confirm the most important detail for the 2024 season: according to Reid, with an ACL-like timeline, Rice’s 2024 season is over.
Before Rice underwent surgery, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network provided his perspective on Rice’s damage, recovery timeline, and how Rice still ended up with “good news” despite a season-ending injury. It’s unclear if Reid’s mention of an ACL-like recovery timeline disagrees with Rapoport’s reporting or if Reid invoked the ACL process as a way of simply ruling Rice out for the rest of the season.
“The determination was made that Rashee Rice needs his LCL repaired,” Rapoport said on October 7, before Rice did reportedly have it repaired the next day. “That’s a little different from what everyone thought originally. [They] thought it was an ACL repair, but it is an LCL repair, which can generally be about 3–4 months of recovery, so Rice’s season is expected to be over. But there is a little bit of potential good news, though. He’s going to have surgery [Oct. 8], and the expectation is that his ACL will not need to be reconstructed. His PCL also likely OK. That means a much shorter recovery for Rashee Rice. That is good news as it pertains to his long-term prospects, but immediately, what is important for the Kansas City Chiefs is that Rashee Rice has likely played his last down for the Chiefs this season.”
