The latest news surrounding a potential suspension for Rashee Rice could turn out to be good news for the Kansas City Chiefs, but it certainly makes one aspect of the next few weeks difficult.

Rice will be available to start the first four weeks of the 2025 NFL season, ahead of a league disciplinary hearing scheduled for Sept. 30. That means the earliest that Rice will go on the Reserve/Suspended list is Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That fact will make Brett Veach’s job that much more difficult with 53-man roster cuts just around the corner on Aug. 26.

The Chiefs boast an extremely competitive group at wide receiver this year. With Rice’s availability for the first four weeks of the season, he joins Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Jalen Royals as five locks to make the initial 53-man roster.

“Yeah (laughs). Listen, we’ll have a tough decision to make, (General Manager) Brett (Veach) will and the coaches,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said of the wide receiver competition on August 7. “There are some good players there, and we will just see how it sorts out here. We have a couple more games (and) a few more practices, so we will see how it all sorts out before we have to make those cuts. Listen, I’m pleased with what we have there – some of the young guys (on) how they’re going out here and producing.”

Two players in direct competition for a single roster spot in Kansas City are Tyquan Thornton and Jason Brownlee. Both players have seen a phenomenal training camp, have built chemistry with Patrick Mahomes, and play a role on special teams. Thornton probably had the better training camp as a whole, earning a ton of opportunities to work with the first-team offense.

“Tyquan’s doing great,” Chiefs WR coach Connor Embree said following training camp practice on Tuesday. “He’s been picking up the playbook well. He’s known all three spots, and he brings some speed.”

The speed has been notable, but where Thornton needs to excel is beating physical press-man coverage. Something that the former New England Patriots second-round draft pick has failed to do with consistency to this point in his NFL career.

As for Brownlee, he probably had the better preseason Week 1. He surprised fans by moving up the depth chart to work with the first string, catching an impressive touchdown from Patrick Mahomes. Later, he nearly made another great catch while working with Bailey Zappe, but the play was ruled incomplete.

“Brownlee, another guy, he’s moved around all three spots,” Embree said. “He’s picking up the playbook well. And then, I mean, we saw in the game he’s got a crazy catch radius. So, I like where both those guys are at.”

That finally brings us to WR Nikko Remigio, who didn’t get his first snaps until the second quarter of preseason Week 1. Some think it’s a sign that the player Dave Toub has deemed the team’s best return specialist has fallen out of favor. The truth is that the team knows what they’re getting with Remigio on special teams. He just needs to prove that he can be relied upon as a receiver.

“Yeah, I mean, we know what Nikko (Remigio) can do,” Toub said. “You know, he needs to do a lot more on offense. Which he has, you know, he’s been doing, but just keep working him in there. Everybody knows how I feel about Nikko. I just love having a guy that you can depend on, solid, you know, he’s not going to cost you a game. It’s that important, so important.”

In preseason Week 1, Remigio caught two passes on three targets for 24 yards, which happened to be the second-most receiving yardage by a Chiefs wideout on the day.

Ultimately, Brett Veach’s decision might also come down to who he believes he can sneak through the waiver wire and get on the practice squad. After all, when Rice is inevitably suspended later in the year, they’re going to need the depth of talent to get through that. Both Remigio and Thornton have already spent time on the practice squad in Kansas City.