Hitting the easy button; The Chiefs need to involve Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the passing game more
Stop me if you've heard this one before; CEH's best quality isn't getting utilized often enough as the Chiefs learn how defenses are attacking them in 2022.
If you were to just look at the numbers you’d say that they’re encouraging. Through a pair of games, Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has 7 catches on 7 targets for 76 yards, a pair of touchdowns, and 6 first downs (touchdowns count as first downs).
If one were to extrapolate those numbers over the course of the season, Edwards-Helaire would end up with around 60 catches for 650 yards on the season. If one looks at 2021’s stats, would be right up there with Austin Ekeler at the top of the league and a very respectable number, especially for a player who is splitting snaps.
Despite that, though, I’m once again asking Andy Reid and the Chiefs to get CEH involved more in the passing game. This feels like a drum I’ve been hammering since his first season with the Chiefs, but now more than ever it feels like Reid is leaving an “easy button” yardage gainer on the table. This is both by having CEH in basically a dead split of snaps with Jerick McKinnon, but it’s also about usage when he’s on the field. While it’s well-established that running backs can’t often move the needle a great deal, there are a few edges that it feels like the Chiefs are continuing to fail to take advantage of given CEH’s skillset.
The short (and incomplete) story is that so far this year, when targeting CEH, good things have happened for the offense in part due to how they’re being played, and in part due to his best traits are in the receiving game.
There’s of course more that goes into such things, like consideration the situation in which he’s been targeted and whether he’s “adding” to the play or just benefiting from what is around him.
With that in mind, let’s talk about what CEH’s targets have looked like this year, and how in a limited sample size he’s shown why the Chiefs would benefit from having him on the field and running routes (actual potential target routes) more than they currently are. While it makes sense to utilize running back by committee in Kansas City given the myriad of skillsets in the backfield, they could make life easier on themselves by moving forward and hammering that easy button.