After Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice suffered a knee injury during last Sunday’s win over the Chargers, it became clear through replay that quarterback Patrick Mahomes hit the wideout when trying to make a tackle after throwing an interception on the play.
In his Thursday press conference, Mahomes told reporters that initially, he had no idea what had happened. But then he saw video of the play, which caused a different reaction.
“I didn’t notice it in the moment, I more worried about trying to get the ball,” Mahomes said. “But obviously, was just trying to make a play and it happens whenever you’re trying to make tackles.
“I mean, when I saw the replay, I felt like shit that I hit Rashee,” he added. “I think that’s pretty much all — I mean, I wasn’t worried about myself. I was worried about, hopefully, his injury and hoping it wasn’t as bad as it looked because I was the one that hit him.”
Head coach Andy Reid said on Thursday that the Chiefs are still gathering information on Rice’s injury and will wait for the swelling in his knee to go down before running any more tests.
Mahomes noted it’s easier to adjust to the lineup changes without Rice when they have a week to prepare as opposed to when the injury happens during the game.
“[O]bviously, Rashee is a huge part of the game plan, you have to throw guys in there and make that timing up,” Mahomes said. “Coach tries to get that done in practice — he tries to throw guys in certain situations. But obviously, there’s limited reps. But I thought the guys did a great job of accepting the challenge and being in there in those moments.
“But coach Reid does a great job of getting guys ready to go throughout a week of game plan. And we had an extra day this week, so I’m sure guys will be ready to go out there and play some great football.”
Rice caught 24 passes for 288 yards with two touchdowns in the season’s first three games.
