No One in Dallas Surprised at Mustangs' Rice with Chiefs

After four seasons developing with SMU, he's become one of Mahome's key targets

DALLAS — Plenty of fans and analysts were surprised the Kansas City Chiefs’ receivers struggled early in the regular season. Even more were surprised when a second-round rookie grew into one of Patrick Mahomes’ best past catchers not named “Kelce.”

Nobody in Dallas was surprised when a former SMU receiver led all Chief receivers in a 26-7 win over Miami, including catching Mahomes’ first touchdown of the playoffs. He finished the wild card game with eight catches and 130 yards. In three playoff games, Rice has 20 catches for 223 yards and a touchdown, which is second only to tight end Travis Kelce (23 catches for 262 yards and three touchdowns). No other Kansas City receiver has more than six catches in the playoffs.

Rice was selected by the Chiefs in the second round of the NFL Draft after playing four seasons at SMU. He began his collegiate career in 2019 and concluded it with Rice setting a new single season receiving yards with 1,355 yards. He finished his Mustang career with 233 catches, 3,111 receiving yards, and 25 touchdowns.

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This was after a four-year career where he kept getting better and better coming out of North Richland Hills to join former Ponies coach Sonny Dykes. As a freshman in 2019 he had 25 catches for 403 yards and a single touchdown. His progression could be a textbook for getting to the NFL by improving yourself in college.

By the time Rice was a senior in 2022, he had improved to 96 catches (averaging 14.11 per game) for 1,355 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns. He was 112.92 yards per game for the Mustangs. That was good enough to get him drafted by former SMU soccer star and owner of the Chiefs as the 55th player in the 2023 draft (second round).

What Rice has done this season isn't a surprise to anybody in Dallas. Fellow native Texan, Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes figured it out pretty quickly, especially once he found out how he could get to the end zone. Now, Rice will have a chance to shine even brighter when the Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. The game will be televised on CBS and fuboTV.

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