Rashee Rice is in jail, leaving the Kansas City Chiefs to douse a fire they thought they’d be better prepared for. Had the WR been more vigilant, the team would be navigating the OTAs with less scrutiny. But are the Chiefs brave enough to support Rice throughout this mess? Former New Orleans Saints wide receiver and Super Bowl champion, Jarvis Landry, is squarely putting the team on the stand.

“I challenge Travis Kelce, I challenge Patrick Mahomes, I challenge any leader that’s in the Kansas City organization to put their arms around this young man, give him guidance, put him in a better room and better position,” Landry said on the 4th And South Podcast.

“Show him how to move in the offseason and how to establish a circle that can lead to generational wealth because they say you are the sum of who you hang with. If you hang around bad s—, bad s— gonna happen to you. If you’re hanging with bad people, bad things are gonna happen to you.” 

Fellow pass-catchers Travis Kelce and Tyquan Thornton have boldly come out in support of the imprisoned WR. Last year, when Rice was in the middle of legal proceedings over his involvement in the 2024 accident, the tight end and a few others wore T-shirts featuring “Free 4” and images of Rice. But with a case as tricky as this one, the move backfired on the Chiefs in a big way. Very recently, former Chiefs OT Mitchell Schwartz also mocked the team for their loyalty to Rice. 

Marc Lenahan, an attorney for one of Rice’s victims, called out the players for supporting Rice via TMZ. The WR had allegedly agreed to a $1.1 million settlement with this victim, but Lenahan argued that Rice hadn’t paid the full amount. He also landed a sharp jab at Kelce, urging him to step up and help Rice out.

“Kelce could make that loan and not worry too much about how soon it gets repaid,” Lenahan told CBS.

The Chiefs have a history of keeping players with criminal records on their rosters. They drafted wide receiver Tyreek Hill in 2014, who had pled guilty to domestic abuse violations while in college. The Chiefs cut him in 2019 after Hill was being investigated for his alleged involvement in a child abuse case. Five years later, Hill is once again linked to the Chiefs as a free agent.

Linebacker Frank Clark is also another player whom the Chiefs selected, despite having a detailed criminal record. While in college, he stole a laptop from a dorm room and was facing a domestic assault charge at one point. But Kansas City still traded for him in 2019 and gave up its first and third-round picks that year. Clark was released in 2023.

However, there is also some precedent about the Chiefs’ willingness to look past such issues. The Chiefs still have wide receiver Kareem Hunt on the roster, who was dismissed in 2018 after assault allegations. He admitted that he lied to the Chiefs about the incident and was cut after security footage implicating him in the act was released.

Keeping someone like Rice on the roster is a big gamble for any team. But the Chiefs would also be in a pickle if they let the WR go, since they’ll have no prominent WR1 in the offense. The team would also have to write a big check if they want to sign someone like Hill at such a point in the offseason. Meanwhile, head coach Andy Reid hoped that Rice would eventually learn from his mistakes. 

“As far as Rashee goes, we’re aware of the situation. The league is aware of it. We’ve talked to the league. We get it,” Reid recently explained. “As far as any further ado to that, there’s been no talk about anything further. We’re moving forward normal, as we go here. When he gets back, we’ve got to get him caught on doing what he needs to do — and then make sure he gets it.”

“It’s not an easy thing he’s going through,” the coach added. “Life lessons are important, but we’re all given chances to learn. He’s in that position now.”

In other words, as put by FOX’s Armando Salguero, “He’s not getting released.” That’s what the sentiment hints at, too.

Rashee Rice’s future with the Kansas City Chiefs

Despite Reid’s cautious optimism, the Chiefs might decline to formally extend Rice’s contract. The franchise “can’t trust” the WR anymore, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. Drug usage is a clear no-no for someone serving probation, and Rice was to serve five years of it while having the freedom to serve his 30-day sentence whenever. Rice knew what was at stake here. 

After he tested positive for THC, he lost his leverage on the timing of the prison sentence.

The NFL’s Player Conduct Policy explicitly forbids players from engaging in any behavior that might hamper or damage the league’s overall reputation. The Rashee Rice controversy is now snowballing into something that is weighing down on the league. Whether or not the top brass will intervene here is not known, but it will be risky to keep Rice on the roster for the Chiefs.

Moreover, Rice has missed time in two of the three seasons he’s played for the Chiefs. Just before he was sent to prison, the WR underwent cleanup surgery on the knee he injured in 2024, which restricted him to only four games that year. And in 2025, he was suspended for six games. Rice is yet to show the spark he showed as a rookie in 2023

“He is going to be now in a jail cell, rehabbing a knee injury,” Adam Schefter said on The Pat McAfee Show. “Going into the last year of his contract without a new deal on the horizon. It’s really unfortunate; it’s all there for him.”  

Missing vital offseason practice reps while recovering from a serious injury in a jail cell actively destroys any remaining roster leverage. The situation has now reached a limit where advocating for Rashee Rice, regardless of his talent, will have to be done at the cost of being reprimanded for ethics. 

Will the Chiefs cave to the outside noise? We will have to wait and watch.