Chiefs Activate Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Place Mecole Hardman on IR

Kansas City shakes up its roster outlook with just a handful of days before Super Bowl LVII.

As the Kansas City Chiefs continue preparing for their Super Bowl LVII matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, the team's injury situation saw a new development take place on Monday morning. Per an official announcement from the team's Twitter account, Kansas City is activating running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire from the injured reserve/injured list and in his place, wide receiver Mecole Hardman is going on IR.

We have activated RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire from Reserve/Injured.

We have placed WR Mecole Hardman on Reserve/Injured. pic.twitter.com/guepFZndhI

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 6, 2023

Back in November, Edwards-Helaire suffered a high-ankle sprain during the Chiefs' Week 11 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. That injury promptly ended his 2022-23 regular season, although the 2020 first-round pick was designated to return from IR back in mid-January. Now that his 21-day practice window was coming to a close and he had a few more weeks to get ready, Kansas City is activating him to the 53-man roster in time for Sunday's game. 

It remains to be seen whether Edwards-Helaire will play a significant role — or one at all — for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Following a 19-carry game back in Week 4, he never reached double-digit rushes before his injury and since then, he's witnessed the duo of rookie Isiah Pacheco and veteran journeyman Jerick McKinnon emerge as a legitimate one-two punch at the position. Nonetheless, Edwards-Helaire does provide depth and could possibly factor into the equation now that he's off IR.

Hardman, who suffered an abdominal injury in November that caused him to miss over two months, suffered a setback in practice once getting designated to return from IR and subsequently had his injury designation shift to a pelvis ailment. He was able to make his return for last week's AFC Championship Game after being delayed and did record a pair of catches on three targets, although he left the game early with an aggravation of the injury. Head coach Andy Reid expressed his doubts last week about the fourth-year receiver making a recovery in time to play in the Super Bowl, and Joshua Brisco of Arrowhead Report elaborated on that in a recent breakdown of Kansas City's injury situation(s):

Again, Reid goes out of his way to praise Hardman's toughness and veracity in returning to the field at all after losing a significant portion of his season to an injury that has still not been publicly explained. Having listened to and attended a large number of Andy Reid press conferences, I take this to be Reid's attempt to let Chiefs fans know Hardman gave it his all, but that his season (and potentially his Chiefs career) has come to a difficult and unfortunate end.

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