Witnessing Chiefs teammate Rashee Rice’s devastating knee injury Sunday during Kansas City’s win over the Chargers wasn’t easy for Travis Kelce.
While rehashing the Week 4 victory on this week’s episode of the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce expressed how heartbroken he is for the second-year wideout, who exited the first half of the contest when his knee collided with quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ arm.
“I just love the way that guy was playing the game of football, how he was attacking every single day in practice, sometimes you just root so hard for the guys that do it the right way and Rashee had been doing that, man,” Kelce told cohost and older brother Jason Kelce on Wednesday. “It was a huge dagger to me when I saw him go down.”
The troubling series of events transpired in the first quarter Sunday, when Mahomes threw an interception to Chargers cornerback Kristian Fulton.
As Rice smacked the ball out of Fulton’s hand, Mahomes attempted to stop the defender but hit his teammate’s right knee.
Mahomes said after the 17-10 win he immediately knew Rice’s injury “wasn’t good.”
“I didn’t know exactly what happened because obviously I was trying to make the tackle, but I know Rashee and how tough he is. So him being down like that, I knew it wasn’t good,” the three-time Super Bowl champ told reporters.
Early indications projected a torn ACL for Rice, who tallied 24 receptions for 288 yards and two touchdowns in the Chiefs’ first three contests.
However, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported this week that the Chiefs are “hoping that it’s not as bad as they feared.”
“We do know that Rashee Rice is going to miss an extended period of time,” Schefter previously said on “NFL Live.”
“We do not yet know that that ACL is torn. He’s continuing to go through testing and there has not yet been confirmation that it is torn, as the Chiefs feared in the postgame locker room after they beat the Chargers. Again, it’s going to be a bad knee injury, but they’re hoping that it’s not as bad as they feared. He’s still going through the testing.”
The Chiefs have been dealt with several injury blows to start the season.
In addition to losing wideout Hollywood Brown, who is currently on injured reserve after undergoing surgery to fix a dislocated sternoclavicular joint in his shoulder, star running back Isiah Pacheco is out for the foreseeable future after suffering a fractured fibula in Week 2.
Kansas City has still found ways to win amid the injuries and is looking to extend its win streak on “Monday Night Football” when the Chiefs host the Saints (2-2).
Kelce, who had a quiet start to the year with eight receptions for 69 yards in three games, rebounded Sunday with seven receptions for 89 yards.
He is still seeking his first touchdown of the year.