KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice spent one sunny afternoon in 2024 in his hometown of North Richland Hills, Texas, giving away several boxes of Domino’s pizza and water bottles to anyone he came across.
The gesture that day was captured on video, with Rice revealing his reasoning at the beginning of the 36-second clip he posted on his social media accounts.
“Everybody gotta eat,” Rice said, staring into the camera.
Since posting the video, Rice and the Chiefs’ offense had to wait nearly a year-and-a-half to begin eating as they envisioned on the field. During that time, Rice suffered a serious knee injury at the beginning of last season and served a six-game suspension for his role in a multicar crash that left multiple people injured and delayed the start to his 2025 campaign.
Last Sunday, Rice made his season debut and helped ignite the Chiefs to one of their best offensive performances of the year in a dominating 31-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Rice’s impact on the field was immediate, leading the Chiefs with seven receptions on a team-high 10 targets for 42 yards and two touchdowns.
But Rice’s words, though — “everybody gotta eat” — had made an impact on his teammates well before his return to action, becoming the team’s motto for the 2025 season. And although the Chiefs had to wait nearly two years to see the full offense they envisioned on the field together — Patrick Mahomes throwing to Rice and fellow wideouts Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown — the first signs against the Raiders were encouraging. And in Monday night’s game against the Washington Commanders (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN), the Chiefs are hoping their offense will continue to ascend and eventually become the league’s most potent scoring attack as they eye another Super Bowl title.
But in order for those plans to reach fruition, Mahomes’ trio of receivers must stay healthy (which has been an issue) and happy, and Rice — up for a contract extension next offseason — must avoid any further off-the-field issues and become the No. 1 receiver the Chiefs have been searching for since they traded Tyreek Hill in March of 2022.
“It’s hard to explain the feeling I got to just run out there and see the fans, the passion in my brothers’ eyes was amazing,” Rice said after Sunday’s game. “We kept talking about it on the sideline. It’s a glimpse of what’s possible and what’s to come.”
THE PLAN FOR Chiefs general manager Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid at the beginning of the 2024 offseason was to make Mahomes’ job easier. But the road getting there was anything but.
That February, the Chiefs, led by the defense, worked around an offense lacking cohesion to win the franchise’s third Super Bowl. That season, Mahomes’ yards per game (261.4), yards per attempt (7) and giveaways (17) were all the worst of his career, and his receivers had dropped 25 catchable passes, the most by any receiver group since the 2012 Jacksonville Jaguars.
One of the few bright spots on the unit was Rice, who, as a rookie, demonstrated he possessed superstar potential. He quickly became the Chiefs’ best receiver, recording 79 receptions for 938 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns. In the postseason, he elevated his game alongside Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and running back Isiah Pacheco.
To provide him help on the outside, the team signed Brown as a free agent in the offseason. He presented a combination of speed, route running and the ability to track the deep ball. But from there, the Chiefs’ plan didn’t go according to plan.
Two weeks later, Rice crashed the Lamborghini SUV he had rented as part of a drag race on a busy stretch of the Central Expressway. The crash led to six vehicles being involved. Rice and four of his friends didn’t check on those injured and instead fled on foot before police arrived. The incident was captured on video.
Rice took full responsibility in a statement he released via Instagram story four days after the crash, and he apologized to “everyone impacted.” (Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation in July 2025).
Later that summer, Brown dislocated his collarbone on the first play of the 2024 preseason, an injury that required surgery and forced him to miss most of last season. Then, in Week 4, Rice collided with Mahomes after an interception and tore the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, ending his season.
The two injuries forced Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round pick in 2024, to develop at a faster rate than most rookie receivers do in Reid’s offense. He finished the season with modest numbers — 59 receptions for 638 yards and six TDs — and the Chiefs ended the season with a 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
With Rice suspended for the first six games of the 2025 season, the Chiefs’ plan for their season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo was to use Worthy’s rare speed (he ran the fastest 40 time in combine history) and dynamic ability. Worthy, though, left the field after the game’s third snap with a dislocated right shoulder after he collided with Kelce, who was running a crossing route in the opposite direction.
During the team’s flight back to Kansas City, some people in the organization — front office personnel and players — wondered if Worthy’s injury was going to force him to miss most of the season. A question loomed over the team, too: Would the Chiefs plan of Rice, Worthy and Brown ever come to fruition?
The following week, the Chiefs lost 20-17 to the Eagles, which dropped them to 0-2 for the first time in Mahomes’ nine-year career.
“It was pretty hard to watch, honestly,” Rice said. “But it’s a long season.”
THE CHIEFS’ LUCK began to change for the better five weeks ago. After missing two games, Worthy returned to the lineup. His speed, production and presence helped begin to unlock the offense in a 37-20 home win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Around the same time, Pranav Sriraman, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Missouri, began promoting Rice’s return on his X account by referencing “Everybody Gotta Eat” on multiple posts. Sriraman explained that one of Rice’s friends noticed a post that included the original video with the EGE hashtag and shared it with Rice. In return, Rice followed Sriraman on X, the two noticing the potential for the motto to become popular among fans and players.
“It was really cool to see in real time the hard evidence of everyone catching onto ‘Everybody Gotta Eat,'” Sriraman said. “It was pretty crazy. I didn’t expect it to take off the way it did and be some sort of rallying cry for the locker room and fan base. But you know, if it works, all the power to them.”
Per the rules of his suspension, Rice was permitted to be in the Chiefs’ training facility following the first half of his ban. Mahomes was one of the first teammates he presented the motto to, even recording the quarterback saying it while heading to the practice fields.
In games, Mahomes was exemplifying the motto with his performances. He spread his passes to nine different teammates as the Chiefs scored a season-high 37 points against the Ravens. He finished the game with 270 yards and four touchdowns without committing a turnover. Two weeks later, in a win over the Detroit Lions, Mahomes completed a pass to eight different Chiefs before finishing with 257 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s a good problem to have, to have that many talented guys,” Mahomes said. “They’ll keep defenses guessing because they won’t know exactly where the football is going to go. It’s going to force the defenses to choose. Are you going to sit back and let us throw stuff underneath or are you going to come up and have to deal with all that speed running down the field?”
The win over the Lions was the Chiefs’ final game without Rice. In the second half, when the Chiefs created plenty of distance on the score, Brown approached Worthy on the sideline.
“When [No.] 4 gets back, we’re about to be treacherous,” Brown said to Worthy, who nodded in agreement.
In the locker room afterward, every receiver shouted the motto. A local sports radio station, 96.5 The Fan, and BreakingT promoted a red and yellow EGE T-shirt for fans to purchase. Mahomes even stunned Sriraman, who attended the Lions game, when he tweeted the motto.
A DOUBLE PORTION OF RICE‼️ pic.twitter.com/NKRqvR6Pca
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) October 19, 2025
“We stopped at a QuikTrip, and Pat tweeted that and my phone crashed,” said Sriraman, who attended the game with a friend. “I couldn’t see any of the reactions and we were just laughing so hard in the car, like, ‘No way Patrick Mahomes really tweeted something that I coined.'”
Before facing the Raiders in his return, Rice had himself, Worthy and Brown wear the same black T-shirt during pregame drills. The shirt showed a cartoon version of the trio with their nicknames in all-caps text: RR-X-JET. The fans inside Arrowhead Stadium produced a loud roar when Rice recorded his first reception. The cheers were even louder when Rice finished the Chiefs’ opening drive with a 2-yard touchdown. Rice celebrated by punting the ball into the stands and pounding his chest before being congratulated by his teammates.
Once again, Mahomes completed a pass to nine teammates — all before the end of the third quarter — to record 286 yards and three touchdowns.
“I feel like there are just more eyes going on somebody else,” Worthy said. “Everybody in this offense can make plays. Nobody is selfish. Everybody is willing to do the dirty work, and everybody is willing to do their best and what’s best for the team.”
With their trio of receivers in the fold, Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy used less 11 personnel — three receivers on the field — against the Raiders (48.1%) than their season average entering Week 7 (50.4%), according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Instead of pushing the ball vertically downfield, Mahomes exploited the Raiders’ zone coverage horizontally. Rice ran only 16 routes, but they were efficient; all of Rice’s production was generated with the ball traveling less than 10 air yards. He was often in favorable matchups against linebackers Devin White or Elandon Roberts.
“I’ve got a good sense — I don’t know if it’s a body language thing or what it is — when it comes to the way he moves and the way he runs routes,” Mahomes said of Rice. “I have a good feel for when he wants the ball and where I need to throw it to.”
Rice’s second touchdown was a 3-yard back-shoulder fade in a one-on-one against cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly, a play that highlighted his timing with Mahomes, who is back to his best this season.
“You don’t really know how much you love something until it’s gone — or possibly could be gone,” Rice said after the first multi-touchdown game of his career. “I was able to get a glimpse of that. I don’t ever want to feel that again. Just being able to be out here with my brothers, that’s the most love I’ve had in a long time.”
IF ANYONE UNDERSTANDS that the rest of the Chiefs’ season is likely going to get more difficult, it’s Mahomes, whose admiration continues to grow for Tom Brady, the legendary quarterback who continued to evolve throughout his 23-year career.
Early in Brady’s career, his top passing option was receiver Troy Brown. As Brady improved, he built rapport with pass catchers such as Deion Branch, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski. In 2020, Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneersto win Super Bowl LV with an offense that featured Gronkowski and a trio of receivers in Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown.
The Chiefs are optimistic that Mahomes can continue to be the point guard for the offense — a leader who can manage the egos of several talented pass catchers and ensure that his teammates in fact do statistically eat.
“It’s hard — and that’s been the biggest thing to see,” Mahomes said. “You have to build this chemistry with these guys every single year. That’s what helped us this year. I’ve thrown to these guys a couple years now. It shows that it takes time and it makes you appreciate what Tom did.”
The benefit for Mahomes is that he, along with his teammates, is having more fun this season than he did throughout the past two seasons, when operating the offense felt like a slog. The last time Mahomes performed this well — and diversified his targets — was in 2022, when he won the league’s MVP award. He recorded 5,250 yards and 45 total touchdowns — and threw a touchdown to 11 teammates.
Through seven games this season, Mahomes has become one of the league’s leading MVP candidates, generating 18 total touchdowns and just two interceptions. The Chiefs are also scoring on 52.3% of their drives.
“Pat has always been the MVP, in my eyes,” Brown said. “We’re joking around in the huddle just looking around like, ‘This is crazy.’ We’re so eager to make plays. If one guy makes a play, you want to make a play. When you’ve got that kind of vibe, it’s hard to stop.”
In training camp — even before the league suspended him — Rice vowed to stay in shape during his time away from his teammates. Rice kept his word. He spent his suspension training in Florida and Texas, conducting his own individual workouts, sessions that included work on his route running, his strength and condition, and his quickness.
Back with the Chiefs again, Rice, who is eligible for a contract extension this offseason, has pledged to be a good influence on his teammates. He plans to be one of the main reasons the Chiefs can continue to fulfill his motto, hoping to end the season winning the Super Bowl alongside Worthy and Brown.
“Everything we’re doing on the field is for each other,” Rice said. “I just enjoy being around those guys when I’m not at home. This is my second home. We all love playing football. We’re with each other 24-7 — in meetings, the weight room, off the field.
“If you’re going to be around someone every day, you might as well love that guy, right? That’s all it is.”
