Analyst Picks First-Round Miss as Chiefs' Worst Move of Last Five Years

The Kansas City Chiefs are on a run of tremendous success, but even the NFL's active dynasty has made some missteps.

Sep 24, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (25) warms up against the Chicago Bears prior to a game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The Kansas City Chiefs have had more success than any other NFL team over the last five years. In fact, they've had more success than the rest of the NFL combined, taking home three of the last five Super Bowls. Still, no franchise is without its flaws, and Bill Barnwell of ESPN highlighted one of KC's poor decisions as he evaluated each team's biggest mistakes from the last five years.

Barnwell defined the Chiefs' biggest misstep of the last half-decade as Kansas City's decision to use a first-round pick on running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Chiefs waived Edwards-Helaire on December 16, ending his Kansas City tenure after five seasons with the team. Barnwell notes that the Chiefs not only misevaluated which running back would have the largest NFL impact, they also missed an opportunity to draft a player who has been a key weapon for one of KC's top rivals. Portions of Barnwell's analysis are italicized below.

Edwards-Helaire ran for 138 yards in his NFL debut, but after he failed to score on six touches inside the 3-yard line, coach Andy Reid seemed to immediately lose faith in him near the end zone. A critical fumble early in 2021 against the Ravens further shook the Chiefs, while he failed to top 300 receiving yards in any of his pro campaigns. Amid a series of injuries in 2021 and 2022, he lost his starting job to seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco.

And while it felt like the Chiefs could afford a luxury pick, they missed out on a number of superior options who went at the top of the second round. The next two backs off the board were D'Andre Swift and Jonathan Taylor. Xavier McKinney and Robert Hunt, two of the top free agents in the 2024 class, were taken among the next 10 selections. Pro Bowlers such as Antoine Winfield Jr., Jaylon Johnson and Trevon Diggs weren't far behind.

The very next player drafted after Edwards-Helaire has tormented the Chiefs personally: Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals. While wideout didn't feel like a position of need for the Chiefs at the time, it would become one when the Bengals locked up Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce in the second half of the 2021 AFC Championship Game. Mahomes would have loved the option to throw to Higgins, but the receiver was busy racking up 103 yards for the Bengals instead. Edwards-Helaire spent the rest of his time in Kansas City battling injuries -- he also experienced PTSD stemming from a 2018 incident -- before he was waived earlier this week.

It's worth noting that Barnwell ranks the Chiefs' first-round blunder as the 22nd-worst move in the league's last five years, with each team being limited to one submission. While Edwards-Helaire was certainly not the player the team hoped he would be (and while the team should have prioritized another position entirely), Mahomes and Co. were able to have league-altering success in spite of a first-round miss.

Meanwhile, another first-rounder is now under a similar microscope. 2023 first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah has more time to alter his trajectory, but to this point in his young NFL career, he has arguably been less impactful than Edwards-Helaire since being picked by the Chiefs.

Read More: Saints Signing Former Chiefs RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire