Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice faces eight felony charges. That means he also faces multiple potential problems under the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy.
“We continue to monitor developments in the matter,” chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email.
The eight felony charges — six of collision involving bodily injury, one of collision involving serious bodily injury, one of aggravated assault — do not include charges for leaving the scene of an accident involving injury. Those could still be coming.
The league typically waits for the criminal case to resolve itself before imposing discipline. Because Rice faces felony charges, he could be placed on paid leave.
The league often doesn’t use paid leave in the offseason, since there’s nothing to be on leave from. The Chiefs could ask Rice to skip the offseason program. In 2019, the Chiefs and receiver Tyreek Hill agreed that he would stay away from offseason workouts while authorities were investigating a broken arm suffered by his son. Hill eventually was not charged.
The Chiefs also could release Rice, avoiding the potential requirement of having to pay him while he is unavailable to play. He has a fully-guaranteed salary of $1.045 million for 2024. The Chiefs could potentially void the guarantees, based on the language of his contract.
The Chiefs had no comment on the matter as of Wednesday night.
