Lisa Foxx
Is Kansas City Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire — aka: CEH — on the hot seat? The team did decline to pick up his 5th year option, but no one really knows how the Chiefs organization feels about their former number one pick because of how often he’s utilized on the field. The same, however, cannot be said about Chiefs Kingdom. It is crystal clear how KC fans feel about their RB#1-turned-RB#3.
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CEH came into the league with high hopes in 2020. He was the starting running back for the LSU Tigers, who had just won another College Championship. Though undersized, CEH was impressive in college and the Chiefs chose the Baton Rouge, LA., native in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft with pick #32. It was a luxury pick, of sorts. Kansas City had just won Super Bowl LIV and were looking to solidify their running game, which had been somewhat deficient throughout the previous several seasons.
CEH was named RB#1 for the Chiefs the very next season after the draft and he put up some decent numbers for a rookie including 138 yards in his first game vs the Texans (0:38).
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The problem was… while CEH hadn’t been terrible, he simply failed to produce at a level expected of a first-round draft pick.
To make matters worse for him, there’s now a new sheriff in town and he goes by the name of –> Isiah Pacheco. The hard-pounding running back out of Rutgers was drafted last year by the Chiefs in the 7th round, and he has been one of the big surprises of the 2022 draft. During one of his draft-day interviews the 24-year-old from Vineland, NJ, said to the camera and to everyone listening that he was going to: come to Kansas City and take a grown man’s job… and that is exactly what he did!
[Note the date: October of 2022]
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Pacheco is now RB#1 for the Kansas City Chiefs and Kingdom fans could not be happier. It’s been years since Kansas City has had a reliable running game and Pacheco, teaming up with veteran running back Jerick McKinnon, has made for an explosive one-two punch out of the backfield. This is why, when CEH does come into games, Chiefs twitter explodes with naysayers condemning the demoted running back. Fans just don’t understand why Coach Reid continues to use him in games when he clearly isn’t producing at the level of the other two backs.
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I believe the reason CEH is being utilized early this season is to keep Pacheco and McKinnon healthy and rested so they will be ready for a late-season push and a post-season run. Coach Reid is well aware that the season is long and injuries are inevitable. He’s been a victim of the injury bug striking late in the season when he wasn’t prepared. None of us will ever forget Super Bowl LV when Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled for a record 497 yards before throwing the ball or being sacked (per NextGenStats) because his offensive line was in shambles due to late season injuries (0:51).
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The same has happened over the last few years with the Chiefs and running backs. CEH was RB#1 for the team in 2020 and 2021. Both years, he was injured late in the season and the Chiefs had to rely on other backs, like 2020 mid-season pickup Le’Veon Bell or 2018 UDFA Darrel Williams to pick up the slack.
CEH has been injured in November or December each year he’s been in the league. Some could argue that a couple of practice squad RBs could do the same, maybe… and do an even better job than CEH. That may be true, but:
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- Clyde knows Coach Reid’s offense
- He is a trusted veteran who knows where to be on the field when the play breaks down
- He keeps the running game honest when Pacheco and McKinnon are on the sideline, and
- He keeps RB#1 and RB#2 healthy for the most important stretch of the season
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The way I see it, CEH is proving his worth by keeping our top players healthy while the Chiefs make a run for another championship.
Just because he isn’t the best at what he does on the team doesn’t mean Clyde isn’t valuable. On the contrary, I’d wager that CEH is someone we want to keep healthy as the season goes along, because he’s the one keeping our RB#1 and RB#2 hungry and injury-free when it really counts the mostest. So, next time Kingdom fans see Clyde Edwards-Helaire take the field they should cheer, because the way injuries occur in the NFL, it’s better for the Kingdom to see CEH playing now… than it would be to see him on the field in the post-season.
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Lisa Foxx — ArrowheadOne
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