While many fantasy players are not yet tuned into the 2025 NFL season, the time is ripe to do a legal update regarding both Rashee Rice and Jordan Addison and their possible suspensions for the coming season. This is particularly important if you are in a Dynasty league, but these updates are critical for any fantasy football manager as the developments in these cases will continue throughout fantasy draft season. Should you be concerned about either fantasy wide receiver missing time from a league-imposed suspension? The answers might surprise you.
Legal Update: Rashee Rice
Rice's situation is fascinating more because of what is not happening than what is happening with his criminal charges. It's not even completely accurate to call them criminal charges because there is no evidence that Rice has an actual criminal case open against him yet. That's why this legal update is probably going to surprise you a bit.
Early Footballguys rankings have Rice as a WR1 for redraft purposes, but his Dynasty rankings are a bit more modest, with him currently at WR17. What's interesting is that there is a lot of early buzz from fantasy pundits that caution is warranted with Rice because of a possible suspension in 2025. That may not be the case.
This legal update isn't going to discuss the season-ending knee injury Rice suffered last year, which should color your opinion on his fantasy prospects, but from a purely legal standpoint the fears about a Rice suspension this season may be overblown.
There are a couple of important things that often get lost in a legal update about Rice that will serve you well in assessing his current value. The first is that you may hear talk about his civil case where someone conflates or confuses it with the criminal one. This is common and points to a critical error when assessing his possible availability this year. The Dallas County court website shows that Rice's pending civil case is progressing normally and has a late June trial date. Should you care? Not really. The NFL has shown that unless criminal charges are involved, they won't care too much about civil allegations. Unless the situation is pervasive or egregious (like Deshaun Watson's), the NFL doesn't have a history of suspending players for civil suits. It's important for you to ignore reports about Rice having a trial in June. It's quite common for people to not realize that the June court date is civil, not criminal, as was evident last year when reports of the December civil trial date were widespread. Not only are civil cases somewhat uninteresting to the NFL, but civil trial dates are about as firm as a down pillow and get continued often. To put it bluntly, civil cases take a long time.
On the other hand, the criminal case is much more interesting for this legal update. Despite the alleged incident happening over a year ago, there is still no evidence that Rice has an indictment in front of him. Searches of the Dallas County website show no pending criminal case number, nor does any major media report have any confirmation that Rice is in criminal litigation. This is the most critical part of Rice's legal update. How can he be facing charges but not be indicted? There's a simple explanation.
When charges are filed at a misdemeanor level, the only requirement is for a police officer or prosecutor to file a complaint against someone. That complaint then becomes an official charge. There is an extra step with felony charges. The complaint gets filed first, and then a Grand Jury has to hear the case and decide to file an indictment for the case to start. It doesn't appear that this has happened yet. Though there is no way to know with complete certainty if he's been indicted, it would be surprising when nothing has leaked and the court website has no case number for a criminal case.
It wouldn't be a legal update, however, to say blindly that there is no case yet. There is a small chance that he's been indicted and is working through a Pre-Trial Diversion Program or that his attorney is currently working on the case in advance of an indictment to attempt to settle it in Rice's favor.
The most likely explanation, though, is the more simple one: Dallas courts are busy. They are busy, and this case is complicated. This is a theme in this legal update as you'll see in the Jordan Addison discussion below, but it's a crucial one. The most likely explanation for the lack of an indictment is that the case is either sitting on a District Attorney's desk waiting for approval to proceed or the case is sitting in a large backlog of cases waiting to get in front of a Grand Jury.
Legal Update Conclusion for Rashee Rice
The resultant conclusion is that Rice is unlikely to resolve his criminal case this calendar year and could escape suspension for yet another NFL season. A suspension for this season seemed to be a solid bet last year when this case was developing, but the lack of any movement means that the case is essentially in the same spot it was last year at this time. That means that unless the case is indicted soon, there is a strong possibility that it will be pushed out past the NFL season. Felony cases take time, and Rice's case is complicated, with significant penalties involved. They won't rush it. The closer you get to the NFL season, the more confidently you can draft or acquire Rice and feel assured he won't be suspended in 2025.
Legal Update: Jordan Addison
The legal update on Addison is more defined than the Rice situation because Addison is already facing criminal charges. Although Addison's charges are less serious, unlike Rice's timeline, Addison is far more likely to resolve his case before the 2025 season because the case is already underway and because it's a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony.
Addison was charged last July with two counts of driving under the influence, and his initial court appearance wasn't set until October. For most courts, that's a long delay. However, Addison was charged in one of the busiest jurisdictions in the country - Los Angeles. As discussed above with respect to Dallas courts, Los Angeles courts likely face a similar backlog. While Addison's case took some time to get moving, it appears it is now nearing a conclusion. The case was initially continued to December but has since progressed to the Pre-Trial phase, where there have been four pre-trial dates on January 9th, February 11th, March 12th, and April 10th. There is another Pre-Trial now set for May 12th.
Having five pre-trials isn't necessarily typical, but it isn't an outlier either. As already noted, Los Angeles is busy, and the case will naturally take longer. Additionally, driving under the influence cases are some of the most labor-intensive to litigate, as dashcam and bodycam footage needs to be scrutinized, pre-trial motions need to be heard, and chemical tests need to be examined.
It's not wild to suggest Addison's case could drag into the season, but given the current status, it's becoming increasingly likely that the case will be resolved before the season. Being this deep into the case means things are progressing, and something should break before too long. Even if it doesn't happen shortly, it would be unusual for a misdemeanor case to go much past the six-month mark from the first negotiations in January, pointing to a resolution sometime in July.
This legal update can't give you the exact outcome of the case because there are no public reports about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings happening at the pre-trial dates. However, there are some educated, logical guesses to be made.
Without getting into a complicated discussion of the facts of the case, it's important to note that one of the bigger points of discussion when approaching any case is the defendant's prior history. Addison has no history of impaired driving. Given some interesting factual quirks of the case combined with Addison's lack of a prior record, there is likely to be a favorable resolution for the Vikings' wide receiver. A reduced charge would make sense.
The NFL has a specific provision in its Policy and Program on Substances of Abuse that mandates a minimum of a three-game suspension for any alcohol-related driving offense. But if he can work out a reduced charge that doesn't involve impairment, he is likely to sit fewer than three games.
Legal Update Conclusion: Jordan Addison
As already noted, there is no way for this legal update to give you an ironclad guarantee, but a suspension of one or two games for Addison is starting to look like the most likely outcome for the 2025 season. That conclusion assumes that Addison can get the charges reduced or dismissed to avoid triggering an automatic three-game suspension. Yet, even if he ends up with an alcohol-related offense, there don't seem to be any aggravating factors that would make the league want to go above three games.
The case should be wrapped up this summer, and it looks like you can count on a one- or two-game suspension with an outside shot that he gets three instead. You should look for a bit of a discount on the young Minnesota receiver in fantasy football, but an extended absence would be a surprise, so feel free to draft him and expect him to play the final 14+ games of your fantasy season.
Legal Update Final Word
This legal update for Rice and Addison is quite a bit different than expected when initially assessing these cases last summer. Things can always change with further developments, but right now, you should operate under the assumption that Addison is likely to limit the damage by taking a small suspension this year, and Rice is likely to escape punishment yet again this season.
