Chiefs WR Rice has Knee Surgery – Quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ favorite target will be sidelined for the rest of the season. Wide receiver Rashee Rice had surgery last week to repair the posterolateral corner of his right knee, instead of the ACL that initially was feared to have been torn in a win over their division rival Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday.
The nature of the injury, and ensuing procedure, does not significantly alter the projected timeline for Rice’s rehab and recovery. He still will miss the remainder of the season, and it is uncertain whether the repaired knee will be strong enough for the start of training camp in July.
“It’s probably the same result you get timewise as an ACL. It takes a while for that to come back,” Reid said as the Chiefs got back to work following their bye. “He’ll get into his rehab and get rolling on that as we go here.”
The only other significant injury news involved pass rusher Mike Danna, who was fighting through a pectoral injury during the week off.
The Chiefs are one of only two unbeaten teams left in the NFL, along with Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings. They square off Sunday afternoon in San Francisco at Levi Stadium in a rematch of the Super Bowl, which Kansas City won, 25-22, in February for its second straight Lombardi Trophy.
The Chiefs have been no stranger to the injury bug, being ravaged at key positions, losing wide receiver Marquise Brown in the first preseason game to shoulder surgery and running back Isiah Pacheco to a fractured right fibula. So far, they have been able to patch up the roster in part by bringing back a couple of blast from the past in wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and half back Kareem Hunt.
Smith-Schuster dominated in the passing game with seven receptions for 130 yards while Hunt ran the air out of the ball 27 times for 102 yards and a score in a 26-13 win over the New Orleans Saints heading into the bye. It was the first time Hunt, who had gone unsigned after a sports hernia procedure, had started for the Chiefs since they cut him while he was going through some off-the-field legal battles in 2018.
“I kind of joke with him (that) he spent the bye week in the cold tub after all those carries,” Reid said. “But I mentioned before, he came back in pretty good shape, other than not having played football, and that’s held true to this point.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Chiefs could get even more reinforcement in the very near future with running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire back this week, also. The former first-round draft pick out of LSU began the season on the non-football illness list (posttraumatic stress disorder) and spent time with the scout team after he was designated to return two weeks ago.
“I want to get with him first before I put anything out there publicly,” Reid said, “but we’re awful glad to have him here.”
And…
Dolphins McDaniel Expects Tagovailoa to Play Again in 2024 – The Miami Dolphins received a glimmer of hope in the middle of a hectic season. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who currently is on injured reserve after suffering a concussion in Week 2 against the Buffalo Bills in a 31-10 loss, is expected to make his return in 2024, coach Mike McDaniel told the media on Monday. This was the first time since Tagovailoa’s concussion that McDaniel suggested he could return to the gridiron this season with his teammates.
“I think they’ve continued to be positive,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa’s meetings with neurological experts.
“There’s still information that he’s seeking this week, and as far as timelines go, I know that he’s not playing this week, and I do expect to see him playing football in 2024, but where that is exactly, we’ll let the process continue since we still have time before you could even entertain anything. We’ll make sure that he’s diligent this week and assess after that.”
Tagovailoa’s most recent concussion, which occurred on September 12, was his first since he was diagnosed with two during the 2022 campaign. Because of his well-documented history with head injuries, this is more than just the run of the mill of clearing concussion protocol before returning to action.
Tagovailoa has gotten more attention and advice from medical experts and was given time to weigh his short- and long-term future and talk to his family before getting back on a football field, which McDaniel has attempted to keep at the forefront of all conversations regarding the Dolphins’ franchise quarterback.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is, for me as a head coach, it’s absolutely imperative that I control the controllables,” McDaniel said. “It was so fast from him getting hurt to immediately going into, all right, ‘What’s the best thing for you, Tua? Where are you at?’ and allowing the process, to really not get ahead of it. I didn’t really allow myself any sort of contemplation moments on whether he would or wouldn’t. I was so, so concerned with where he was at and in his career, for family and everything that is true to be his, and trying to operate on a ‘next man up’ mentality from that.
“It is exciting that I do believe he’ll play football this year. I never went down that rabbit hole of if he would or wouldn’t, just because I’ve learned through circumstance how that’s the wrong question to be asking. The right questions are completely, 100 percent toward the human being and the player as a result.”
Even in a quarterback-driven league, it has been eye opening and startling to witness the Dolphins’ nose dive without Tagovailoa. The Dolphins have devolved into one of the NFL’s most-inept offenses, entering Week 6 with the 25th-ranked passing offense. They did not hold a lead during a game until Week 5, and own the NFL’s worst scoring offense at an embarrassing 12 points per game.
On the bright side, they earned their first win without Tagovailoa last week, taking down the New England Patriots in a 15-10 in a defensive slugfest. But it does not take a rocket scientist and much game tape to understand how difficult things are for the Dolphins without their leader.
Perhaps they will get him back before long. Tagovailoa is eligible to return to practice next Wednesday on October 23. But as McDaniel said Monday, do not let the excitement anticipation build to a breaking point just yet. The medical process remains the highest priority.
