Rashee Rice update: Chiefs WR eligible to play in 2024 season, unlikely to face immediate suspension

For months, all signs have pointed to Rashee Rice facing a multigame suspension for his role in a high-speed hit-and-run crash that occurred this spring. With only a week until the start of the 2024 NFL season, however, the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver is eligible to take the field as usual, with league executives hinting Thursday that Rice will avoid immediate punishment related to the incident.

"We don't anticipate he'll be placed on [the] commissioner's exempt [list]," NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told reporters of Rice, "unless there is a material change in the case."

The exempt list is often used for players under suspension, so that said players do not count toward their respective team's active roster. Rice has participated in all of the Chiefs' offseason programming, including spring workouts and summer training camp, while awaiting a legal resolution to his off-field transgressions. With no court date scheduled in relation to eight criminal charges filed against the wideout this offseason, that means Rice is on track to be available for Week 1 and beyond.

Rice, 24, faces charges of aggravated assault and collision involving serious bodily injury after he was part of a high-speed car crash in Dallas on March 30. The 2023 second-round draft pick also faces a civil lawsuit related to the accident, and was also the subject of a separate investigation by Dallas police for an alleged nightclub assault, though he has not been arrested or charged due to that incident.

On the field, the SMU product figures to play a prominent role for the Chiefs' Super Bowl-caliber offense, one year after emerging as a top downfield target for Patrick Mahomes with 79 catches for 938 yards and seven touchdowns.