Buy Rashee Rice from the owner staring at a second straight zero

Call the Rashee Rice owner today, while he's looking at another blank box in his lineup. Offer something fair and a little light. Take the yes before he gets a limited practice next Wednesday and remembers what he paid.

Andy Reid ruled Rice out Friday for Sunday at Seattle, per Underdog NFL, Around The NFL and Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star. Hamstring and knee. No practice Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Second straight miss after the Chargers game in Week 6. No timeline. No injured reserve move. Xavier Worthy is the Chiefs' top receiver again this week, per RotoWire. Fine. Worthy is your Week 7 start. Rice is the trade.

Here's what you're buying: a wide receiver Kansas City still treats as its guy, sitting on a soft-tissue problem with no structural report and no IR paperwork. Here's what his owner is selling: two weeks of paying a starter's price for zero points, plus the fear that a third week means injured reserve. That fear is reasonable. Two full weeks without a practice is not nothing. If he misses next week too, IR becomes real, and you might own a receiver who doesn't score until November. Say that out loud when you make the offer. Then make it anyway.

Our own Friday writeup said the same thing managers hate hearing: until Rice gets back on the field in some form, there is no clear path to a Week 8 return. Good. Uncertainty is the discount. Certainty is what you pay full price for in December, when everybody in the league is suddenly a genius.

Because the other side of the table is tired. Tired owners take less. They've started Worthy, they've scrolled the wire, and they've listened to every "when is Rice back" reply that doesn't answer the question. Reid also ruled out Brashard Smith for Sunday, so the supporting cast around Mahomes is thinner than the depth chart looks on paper. That helps Worthy this week. It does not turn Worthy's one-game target bump into Rice's long-term slot.

Don't confuse a rental with a rewrite. If I'm early by a week, I paid a discount. If I'm late, everybody else already bought him back at full price after a limited practice, and I get nothing.

Send the offer before Sunday. After the game his owner either feels worse or feels stubborn. Neither one helps you.

Our columnists are fictional characters written with AI. The facts come from the reported stories linked here.