Something from nothing: CEH's gifts are tailor-made to contribute immediately

Taking a closer look at CEH's ability to gain extra yards

Things have escalated quickly for Clyde Edwards-Helaire. With Damien Williams (I’m sorry, CHIEFS LEGEND Damien Williams is his full name) opting out of the 2020 season, CEH has gone from likely to split carries (due to offensive understanding and the trust Williams has from Reid and Mahomes) to much more of a bell cow in the best offense in the league.

I’ve written extensively about CEH for The Athletic, including before the Chiefs drafted him. It’s well known that I view him as a perfect fit for the Chiefs’ offense. His ability to run excellent routes and catch the ball well is something that will obviously translate to Andy Reid’s system.

It never gets old watching CEH run a sharp angle route to get quick separation, then show fast hands to adjust to a a throw over his head. However, given the news that Williams is not going to be around, I thought it might be interesting to look a little closer at an area CEH has a chance to actually improve the Chiefs’ offense from a consistency standpoint.

James Palmer @JamesPalmerTV

In light of the Damien Williams opt out, here’s something interesting. The Chiefs while in shotgun ran between the tackles for an NFL low 2.9 ypc. Clyde Edwards-Helaire last season averaged 6.9 ypc on runs between the tackles in shotgun

The Chiefs love to line up in shotgun, and run a ton of RPO’s and other delayed handoffs from that formation. However, though it creates the most advantageous situation for Patrick Mahomes to throw out of, it wasn’t something the Chiefs were good at running out of last year.

A great deal of that is skillset. While Williams is a competent running back, his strength is not vision/patience when running from shotgun. Additionally, the Chiefs offensive line was not a particularly strong run blocking group last season, and holes were hard to come back. Williams isn’t generally a “creator” running back who can find extra creases or shake tackles consistently. Instead, he relies on the blocking to create a hole for him to hit quickly and utilize his speed.

CEH’s skillset is entirely different from Williams. I’ve written extensively about his vision and patience elsewhere, but today I want to focus on his ability to grab extra yards regardless of blocking.

Here, the the LSU line isn’t able to move the pile forward to create space for CEH. Additionally, the safety does a nice job coming in to fill the gap on the left side. That means CEH is met at the line of scrimmage. However, CEH has uncommon quickness and is able to force the defender into diving at air. He then quickly accelerates away from the closing defense to chew up extra yards.

Once CEH reaches the next level, he shows his significant strength and balance through contact when another secondary defender comes flying in trying to lay a big hit. CEH is built like a powder keg at 5’7” and around 205 pounds, and the phrase “low man wins” exists for a reason.

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That combination of exceptional lateral agility and strength allows CEH to buy yards that aren’t there frequently.

This is another run out of the shotgun where CEH has to gauge where the opening is as he collects the ball. He sees that the gap inside the tackle will be filled and that his blocker on the edge is losing, so he quickly bounces outside. Notice the effect this has on the cornerback at the bottom of the screen, whose job it is to defend the edge. CEH takes advantage of that by pressing the edge and forcing the corner to commit. Once he does, CEH bounces back inside.

There’s another closing defender who meets CEH almost immediately upon his cutting back up the field. And again, CEH shows that he’s a handful for secondary defenders to bring down, eventually shaking him off with a stiff arm that looks remarkably like what one might see in Madden (at least, back in the early 2000’s when I played Madden).

CEH’s skillset is such that not only does he buy extra yards on many plays, he at times creates something from absolutely nothing.

This sort of play, much like running out of shotgun, is something the Chiefs struggled with in 2019. There’s no room whatsoever for CEH when he gets the ball here, as the center gets bullied backwards into his path (remember plays like the last 3 shown the next time someone tells you CEH was all LSU’s offensive line last year). When CEH tries to cut outside, the defense fills well and there’s nowhere to go. When he cuts inside, he’s surrounded.

This play should be dead in the water. But CEH’s uncommon acceleration in the phone both allows him to circle around a defender in the backfield, and he sees a tiny gap to exploit moving forward. He ends up tackled but falls ahead for an extra yard. The end result is a 4-yard gain on what should have been a loss. That’s not a flashy play in the box sheet, but can make all the difference in moving the chains.

CEH’s skillset allows him to gain extra yards when catching the ball as well. This has nothing to do with running out of shotgun, but it sure is fun to watch.

The Chiefs quietly didn’t consistently collect “hidden” yards in the form of yards after contact or on plays that weren’t well-blocked in 2019. While Williams had some big gains that came after contact (raising his average), he’s generally a player who takes what the blocking gives him and not much more. CEH has an opportunity to change that.

He’s also able to aid his blocking in subtle ways that make it look better than it is, another hidden yards feature. Watch CEH’s movement on a play that might appear to be an easy touchdown.

Notice that as CEH approaches the line of scrimmage, he fakes as though he’s going to run inside (pressing the gap). This causes the defender at the line to flash inside and shed his blocker that direction. It also lures the linebacker inside and towards the line of scrimmage. This allows CEH to cut back outside for a touchdown that on the surface looks like a matter of his line dominating, when instead it was CEH’s movement that caused the defense to lose gap discipline.

One concern with runners who like to dance at the line of scrimmage while waiting for a hole to open is that they’ll hesitate even when there’s an obvious lane to run through. CEH doesn’t generally have that issue. When there’s a place to attack, he gets north/south in a hurry.

It’s impossible to say with certainty how a rookie will perform at the NFL level. However, CEH’s fit into precisely what the Chiefs need seems to be about as a sure a thing as one can find.

The key here isn’t that CEH (who plays a position that generally doesn’t move the needle much) will make the Chiefs offense significantly more explosive. It’s that he can make it more consistent. By averaging low yards per carry out of shotgun last year or struggling to convert yardage when the blocking was sub-optimal, the Chiefs lost out on some first downs that could have extended drives and set themselves up for tough third down situations. While Mahomes is capable of miracles, lowering the frequency the team needs to pick up yards in chunks to move the ball well should make them that much more dangerous.

CEH appears to have the perfect skillset to help fix that by raising their efficiency when the situation calls for them to run the ball out of RPO’s or against light boxes out of shotgun. And also, we’re going to get to watch plays like this.

There’s a question as to whether CEH will be able to pick up pass blocking to the level the Chiefs will want to see early (he was a willing but not consistent blocker in college), and that will need to be answered. However, having Eric Bieniemy as his offensive coordinator should go a long way towards ensuring he’s up to speed quickly (because believe me, he’ll hear about it if he’s not).

But overall, CEH’s ability to grab hidden yards should set the Chiefs up for even more success than they had last year on offense.