Clyde Edwards-Helaire Is Starting to Find His Groove
For many in Chiefs Kingdom, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire was written off before he ever took his first snap with the team. It had nothing to do with him as a person or player, but rather everything to do with the position he plays and the point in which he was taken at the end of the first round during the 2020 NFL Draft.
There were a few running backs who were taken shortly after Edwards-Helaire (including Jonathan Taylor, who the Chiefs will see this weekend) and have had much better starts to their careers. That happens every year, however, so it’s not worth driving down that road. Edwards-Helaire is here to stay and he appears to be a big part of the team’s plans for the near future. Despite a few injuries over his first few seasons, Edwards-Helaire has been a generally solid running back.
Before this season, the biggest knock on Edwards-Helaire — other than staying healthy — was his lack of explosiveness or big-play ability. During the 2021 season, he didn’t have a single run of 20 yards or more. The ability to break through tackles was there, but accelerating and breaking off big runs never materialized. Many folks wondered why he didn’t have an expanded role in the passing game, too, as it was something he excelled at in college, getting mismatches against linebackers and making them pay in the open field.
Entering 2022, some thought this could be the end of the road for Edwards-Helaire. With the additions of free agent Ronald Jones and rookie seventh-rounder Isiah Pacheco and the re-signing of Jerrick McKinnon, the running back room certainly was getting crowded. On the contrary, the trio of head coach Andy Reid, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Edwards-Helaire himself had other plans. During the preseason, it was noticeable that coaches wanted to keep him as healthy as possible while letting the newer backs on the team get a majority of the touches.
Through two regular season games, the plan seems to be working well. To the surprise of many, the Chiefs decided to ground and pound early in their game against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1. Edwards-Helaire looked fresh, breaking off chunk play after chunk play on the opening drive.
One thing that seems like an obvious move from the coaching staff is they don’t want to overwork Edwards-Helaire. Utilizing McKinnon and Pacheco throughout the game will remain important. There’s no doubt about who the starting running back will be, but having the options right behind Edwards-Helaire to keep him fresh will be critical to the team’s success at the position.
It’s still a small sample size, but the Chiefs seem to be targeting Edwards-Helaire a bit more in the passing game. Going into the season, it was well known that quarterback Patrick Mahomes would be spreading the ball around more than he had in the past due to the departure of Tyreek Hill. Those 100-plus targets needed to go somewhere, after all, and Edwards-Helaire is an early beneficiary of some of those targets. In Week 1, he received three targets and caught them all for 32 yards while logging two touchdowns in the red zone. In a closer and more competitive game in Week 2, he was targeted four times and recorded 44 receiving yards.
Getting out in space and finding mismatches seems to be something Reid wants to utilize more with Edwards-Helaire this season, and the early returns look good. Mahomes still has his All-Pro future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce as his top target but with new faces like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and rookie Skyy Moore in the mix, Edwards-Helaire can continue to carve himself a nice role in the receiving game as the season progresses.
In another surprising turn of events, Edwards-Helaire had two of the most impressive plays of the game in Week 2. One was when he laid the truck-stick on Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James. Edwards-Helaire got low and knocked James to the ground while also managing to pick up extra yards on the play.
That was one of two plays in the game in which Edwards-Helaire gained 20 yards or more.
The other play occurred in the fourth quarter when the team was looking to pick up some first downs to run some clock with a one-score lead. Edwards-Helaire took a handoff from Mahomes, covered the ball like his life depended on it, bounced to the right and took off down the sideline for 52 yards before sliding and staying in bounds to keep the clock running. It was the longest run of his career, and it came at a critical moment in the game.
It’s early in the season, but the results both on the ground and through the air look promising for the third-year running back. If Edwards-Halire can stay healthy and continue to be utilized in an effective manner, he could be a key piece to the Chiefs' offense and the team reaching their lofty goals this season.
As it’s been for the past several seasons since Mahomes took over as quarterback, it is Super Bowl-or-bust for this Chiefs team. Edwards-Helaire becoming an effective runner and efficient pass-catcher would certainly be a nice piece to the puzzle as the 2022 campaign continues to unfold.
