KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice started slowly in his two preseason games for the Kansas City Chiefs. He dropped a first-quarter pass each time.

The second-round draft pick bounced back well enough that Patrick Mahomes is comparing him to a former Chiefs receiver, at least in terms of style of play.

“I say he has a lot of what Sammy [Watkins] had when he first got here,” Mahomes said. “Being able to catch the ball, be physical but still have speed and everything like that. He’s going to be a great player for us and we’re going to keep trying to push him to get better.”

Mahomes’ comments came after Rice led the Chiefs with 8 catches and 96 receiving yards in a 38-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.

Rice had two catches of 25 or more yards, one when he got open down the left sideline and another when he took a short pass, made two defenders miss and picked up an extra 20 yards.

It was the latter play that has the Chiefs and Mahomes most intrigued. The Chiefs drafted Rice in part because of his ability to pick up yards after the catch. Against the Cardinals, the Chiefs tried to feature Rice in that role on a couple different snaps, once on a screen pass and another on a pop pass when he was coming across the formation in motion.

Asked about Mahomes comparing him to Watkins, Rice joked that he agreed with it “if Pat said it.” But his comparison was another veteran wide receiver.

“I used to try to compare my game after DeAndre Hopkins,” Rice said. “That was my favorite wide receiver for a long time and then I got to the same level as him, so I’ve just kind of got to work on myself and see what I become.

“I can compare myself to him as far as being aggressive to the ball and being a playmaker once the ball's in my hands.”

The Chiefs were interested in trading with the Cardinals for Hopkins early in the spring. They lost much of that interest after drafting Rice.

The Chiefs have a crowd at wide receiver even without Kadarius Toney, who missed all of training camp after having surgery for a torn meniscus. But Rice appears to have carved out a role even if Toney is available when the regular season begins.

The Chiefs have tried to speed his learning curve, playing him more than any of their other wide receivers so far in the preseason.

“You look for baby steps learning of growth learning this offense,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “You want to talk about drinking through a fire hydrant for Rashee coming in here? He comes from a no-huddle offense [in college at SMU] and it’s a little bit different now with tempo here. There’s a huddle play, getting to the line of scrimmage, running your route [and] being on time, jogging back and doing it again.

“Every day he’s made incremental improvements and it’s exciting for us because the sky’s the roof for his talent.”

Rice’s biggest flaw during the preseason is the dropped passes. He also fumbled near the end of the play on one of his long catches against the Cardinals, though he recovered.

Coach Andy Reid indicated he wouldn’t be patient with Rice losing a grip on the ball for long.

“It’s great to come back [from dropped passes], but let’s try not to do it at the start,” Reid said. “If you do then you’ve got to come back, but let’s try to eliminate the first part of the equation.”

For now, at least, Mahomes and the other Chiefs quarterbacks will keep firing to Rice. Mahomes and Rice became acquainted before the draft, when he invited Rice to participate in his throwing sessions for Chiefs receivers.

He came away impressed with Rice even before they were teammates.

“He has good feel,” Mahomes said. “We keep pushing him to be better and better. You see the talent. He makes a lot of tough catches. He had the drop early and he responded well. I think that comes with the jitters of being in your first few NFL games. But I have a lot of trust in him to make those catches in tough spaces. There’s just another playmaker that we have in this offense.”