Report: Kansas City Chiefs re-sign Clyde Edwards-Helaire to one-year contract
Clyde Edwards-Helaire is returning to the Kansas City Chiefs. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Chiefs have resigned the veteran running back to a one-year contract. Edwards-Helaire finished the 2023 season with 223 rushing yards and one touchdown.
Edwards was selected by the Chiefs in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He was the team’s starter up until midway through the 2022 season when current starter Isiah Pacheco took over. Edwards-Helaire was placed on injured reserve on Nov. 23, 2022 and was activated before Super Bowl LVII. He did not play in the team’s Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles that season.
Before the 2023 season, the Chiefs declined the fifth-year option on Edwards-Helaire. The 24-year-old played in 15 regular season games with three starts and rushed for 53 yards on 11 carries in four playoff games. In the Super Bowl in February, Edwards-Helaire had just one carry for no yards. The Chiefs defeated the 49ers in the Super Bowl making Edwards-Helaire at two-time Super Bowl champion.
More on Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s career
Edwards-Helaire had a strong rookie season, rushing for 803 yards and four touchdowns on 181 carrries. But his yards and carries have gone down each season, leading to the Chiefs going with Pacheco. But the LSU alum continued to work throughout the 2023 season and helped the Chiefs any way he could.
“Everybody has their own way of life and this is a sport, Edwards-Helaire said in December, per Fox 4 in Kansas City. “Don’t get me wrong, but I need to make sure my mental on right before I do anything else. So I was able to do a lot of things. I got engaged, I had the whole nine yards.”
“When everybody felt like you know, Clyde might be in the dumps, I was probably on my highest horse. And that’s just one of those things. You take whatever is the light of the situation and you brighten it up and then now it’s just, you know, everybody’s just talking about the opportunity but the opportunity was getting drafted and being able to be in this position. So always had the opportunity but you know, they just kind of marking it up for me.”
Edwards-Helaire will likely backup Pacheco again in 2024. Pacheco is coming off a 2023 season where he rushed for 935 yards and seven touchddowns. In 2022 Pacheco rushed for 830 yards and five scores.