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The New England Patriots are urged to sign longtime rival wide receiver Tyreek Hill for one very good reason.

The Kansas City Chiefs could be in the market for more help at wide receiver after Rashee Rice’s future became a bit more murky, but the team may hold off on bringing back a former star.

Rice hit a significant roadbump when he failed a drug test and was sentenced to jail for 30 days for violating his probation related to a 2025 conviction for a street-racing incident. The Chiefs receiver was originally allowed to determine when his sentence would start, but the drug test triggered it immediately.

It came at a difficult time, with Rice just undergoing surgery on his knee and now missing a critical month of rehab. SI.com’s Albert Breer suggested the team will need to look for help in case Rice misses time, though believes Tyreek Hill would not be an immediate addition.

Chiefs Could View Tyreek Hill as ‘Long-Range’ Addition

Breer noted that the Chiefs had a chance to jump into the mix to land Philadelphia Eagles star A.J. Brown, but passed and likely won’t reverse course. But Breer believes that Rice’s uncertain future — including the potential of facing another NFL suspension — will have the Chiefs in the market for some kind of addition.

“The uncertainty around Rice certainly would put the Chiefs in the market for insurance, and from that perspective Stefon Diggs would make a ton of sense,” Breer wrote. “He’s healthy, was productive last year, has played against the Chiefs’ championship teams of the recent past, and could be a crafty plug-and-play piece for Patrick Mahomes & Co.”

Though the Chiefs have often been connected to Hill, who remains a free agent after being released by the Miami Dolphins, Breer suggested that the uncertainty around his knee injury would lead the Chiefs to hold off.

Breer wrote that the Chiefs would likely not consider signing Hill until they could be sure that the injury didn’t rob him of his speed and athleticism.

“Hill, to me, would be a little bit of a long-range idea, just in that you’d want to see him coming out of that catastrophic injury, and know he’s going to be able to at least be in the neighborhood of the kind of player he was,” Breer wrote. “I don’t know one way or the other if he will be.”

It is not clear yet if Hill would be ready to start the 2026 season.

Stefon Diggs Seen as Better Fit

As Breer suggested, the Chiefs could find more luck in targeting Diggs, their former rival with the Buffalo Bills. NFL reporter Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom reported that insiders across the league believe Diggs would be a strong addition for the Chiefs.

“With Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice now back in legal trouble and dealing with more health concerns, and that team leaning very hard into its defensive needs in the draft over pass catchers, multiple personnel execs from other teams told me they believe Diggs, while not a replacement for Rice’s explosion, would be a strong fit in Andy Reid’s offence as a secondary piece,” La Canfora reported.