Despite the challenges rookie receivers face, Kansas City Chiefs wideout Rashee Rice has had quite a successful first season in the NFL.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has noticed Rice’s positive progression from Week 1 to the playoffs, and is quite impressed.

“I’m proud of him,” Kelce said about Rice during Thursday’s press conference. “He’s come a long way, and I think he’s still ascending as a player in this offense. It’s just been fun to see him rise to the occasion and really just catapult us in a lot of ways both in the pass game and run game.”

It’s not often that first-year receivers have as successful of a first season as Rice has had, especially in coach Andy Reid’s offense. Complex playbooks and route concepts, the speed of the game and the grind of a long season can often make things difficult for new wideouts.

That hasn’t, however, stopped Rice, who earned 79 catches for 938 yards and seven touchdowns during the regular season, and went off for 130 yards and a score in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Rice’s three biggest games have come during the second half of the season, meaning he’s getting better with experience. Kelce said oftentimes that’s when rookies can hit a wall, but not Rice.

“It’s been awesome to see him accept the challenges every single week,” Kelce said. “Week 10 through 15 as a rookie you can kind of get lost a little bit, and he’s been real focused throughout that and really hasn’t hit a rookie wall as much as, at least, I did.”

Kelce is being modest, as even he had almost 900 yards in his first full season. But Kelce certainly knows a thing or two about working to find his place in the Chiefs’ intricate offensive scheme. Rice has managed to expedite that process that Kelce went through, finding his way as the team’s top wide receiver more quickly than what some might have expected.

Kelce went on to rave about Rice, attributing his first-year success to many skills needed to be productive in the NFL. Ultimately, though, it’s Rice’s work ethic that keeps him as quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ preferred target in the team’s WR room.

“I would say just his attention to detail,” Kelce said, “his ability to feel out defenses, be confident in what he’s seeing in the defense to be able to find voids. I think he’s been pretty spot on with that and open to learning more about that kind of stuff.

“When you’re open to learning about stuff in this building, you’re going to figure it out.”