After Option Decision, Clyde Edwards-Helaire Enters Career-Defining Stretch

Kansas City's 2020 first-round pick is facing the biggest few months of his career moving forward.

When the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Clyde Edwards-Helaire coming out of LSU, they likely imagined that they were investing a first-round pick in a player who would be a centerpiece of their offense for the next half-decade or more. They saw a running back that produced at an elite level during his final season with the Tigers and projected that he'd be a hand-in-glove fit in head coach Andy Reid's pass-happy offense. They, as well as quarterback Patrick Mahomes, thought they were getting someone who could elevate things to a new level.  

Instead, Edwards-Helaire's career has followed a rollercoaster of a trajectory. The ups, though, weren't frequent nor impressive enough to have the team pick up his fifth-year option by Tuesday afternoon's deadline. That option was declined by Kansas City, punting on an opportunity to lock in the former No. 32 overall pick at a salary of just under $5.5 million for 2024.

It's hard to disagree with that decision, and while it doesn't have to spell the end of Edwards-Helaire's time in Kansas City post-2023, it places an increased emphasis on the next few months for him.

They could make or break the rest of his career, after all. 

Sep 11, 2022; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (25) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the first half against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Over the course of his three seasons with the Chiefs thus far, Edwards-Helaire has been severely limited due to injuries. After playing 59% of the team's offensive snaps in 2020, those figures have dropped to 50% and 32% in the ensuing two campaigns. After starting 13 games as a rookie, Edwards-Helaire played in just 10 regular-season contests in year No. 2 and then another 10 in year three, but he started only six of them and didn't log a single snap throughout Kansas City's run to Super Bowl LVII. Last year's seventh-round pick, Isiah Pacheco, surpassed him on the depth chart. So did veteran Jerick McKinnon, who re-signed with the Chiefs on Tuesday.

From an on-field profile perspective, Edwards-Helaire isn't what he entered the league as. He came into the NFL with some surprisingly solid short-area burst, mostly adequate long speed and a knack for feasting as a receiver out of the backfield. After hip, knee and ankle injuries, as well as gallbladder surgery, he doesn't resemble the same halfback that terrorized opposing defenses at LSU. As a result, he's seen the field far less than expected and he has games littered with poor reps as a rusher and underwhelming utilization and production as a receiver.

The flip side of this coin is that the Chiefs (obviously) want Edwards-Helaire to be a successful part of their running back rotation. He was the team's unquestioned starter at the beginning of last season, but his struggles and the emergence of Pacheco led to the veteran being effectively phased out of the team's plans. The original intent was there, though, and he's still in good standing. General manager Brett Veach had a post-NFL Draft press conference on Monday, and he revealed that Edwards-Helaire was the first person he saw in the team facility: 

"We’re excited for Clyde this season. He was actually the first guy I saw in the building today, in tremendous shape. He’s a good football player. He’s going to help us out here, again, with these guys we have a list of things to do with a bunch of these guys and now that the draft is officially ended in the next coming weeks now’s the time we go through all that stuff and start making our plans for the future. But needless to say, we’re excited to have him back in the building today and look forward to hopefully a healthy 2023 campaign for him."

It doesn't greatly benefit the Chiefs to part ways with Edwards-Helaire this year via a roster cut. The juice ($865,726 in cap savings per OverTheCap) isn't worth the squeeze ($2.58M in dead cap). They need the depth and could benefit from keeping him in the fold. They've also seen glimpses of the player he can be in Reid's offense as recently as last season. In Week 1, Edwards-Helaire toted the ball seven times for 42 yards (six yards per carry) and hauled in three passes for 32 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The next week, he averaged 9.25 yards per carry and 11 yards per catch. Two weeks later, he had season-highs in carries (19) and yards (92) while scoring twice in the process.

At this point, the odds of Edwards-Helaire ever becoming a featured back in an NFL offense for any extended period of time are insanely low. He simply doesn't have the all-purpose profile and durability of someone capable of succeeding in that role. He does, however, have some receiving chops and familiarity with how Kansas City does things. With a Pacheco-McKinnon duo emerging down the stretch last year and Edwards-Helaire fighting for his football life, could it spell good things for the Chiefs' running back room? Absolutely, especially when undrafted free agent pickup Deneric Prince is added into the mix.

It's well-known that the "contract year" can bring out the best elements of what a player can bring to the table. A contract year for someone who's fallen short of expectations year-over-year-over-year could allow Kansas City to see what Edwards-Helaire is truly made of. It won't lead to gaudy volume numbers and it won't unseat Pacheco atop the rotation, but it should lead to the former being as hungry as ever and an intriguing depth piece. This next stretch of offseason, training camp and preseason will define the rest of Edwards-Helaire's Chiefs career, and it could start to shape the rest of his NFL tenure as well.

Read More: Chiefs Draft Recap and UDFA Tracker