"We knew enough to draft him": Andy Reid addresses Rashee Rice character concerns stemming from SMU shooting
Rashee Rice was selected as a potential successor to Tyreek Hill by the Kansas City Chiefs. However, with alleged felonies coming to light over the past few months, his character has been challenged. In addition to transgressions this offseason, there may have been a shooting incident in the wide receiver's past at SMU.
According to an article by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk published on June 10, head coach Andy Reid was asked about whether the team was already aware of the SMU incident before drafting Rice.
"The way I’d leave it with you ... is we knew enough to draft him, you know, and then we just went with the process and we, you know, we found that it was satisfactory for us ... I’ll probably leave it right there. Yeah, I’ll leave it right there for you," Reid said.
Reid's decision to answer without a straight yes or no indicates reason to believe that the alleged SMU incident may have been found out following their decision to draft Rice. On the other hand, it could also indicate that they decided they wanted to draft him before learning about the incident but were too enticed by his upside that the downside was underestimated.
Either way, the Chiefs now have a wide receiver with eight pending felony charges and a potential connection to a shooting event at SMU.
What happened with Rashee Rice at SMU before joining Andy Reid?
While the spotlight is on Rashee Rice's alleged offseason misconduct, the wide receiver also allegedly has one big skeleton in his closet. As reported by Pro Football Talk, the wide receiver may or may not have fired bullets into someone's car.
As the story went, Rice believed SMU basketball player Kendric Davis had been seeing his girlfriend. As such, the wide receiver and some friends visited Davis' car at an SMU basketball game. Rice or one of his friends fired multiple shots into the empty vehicle. Pro Football Talk corroborated the story per reports from various sources.
The article claims that every team in the league was aware of the events concerning the wide receiver, but the Kansas City Chiefs were the team to take him 55th overall.
Patrick Mahomes' rookie receiver Rashee Rice earned 938 yards and seven touchdowns in 2023.