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Shortly after the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs revealed that RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a player that Patrick Mahomes wanted on the Chiefs. Brett Veach sent Mahomes a text message during the first round of the draft, unprompted, and asked him to name three players that he would want in Kansas City. Edwards-Helaire’s name was the first that Mahomes replied back with.
During Friday’s conference call with local media, Mahomes had an opportunity to reveal what he liked most about Edwards-Helaire.
“I think the first thing that stood out from Clyde is when the competition and the games got bigger, it seemed like he played better,” Mahomes said. “I always like guys that can rise to the competition, and whenever you’re on the biggest stage, you play your best football, and you rise up and compete with your team. So, that was the first thing that stood out to me as I watched the College Football Playoff and at the end of the college football season. The way he’s able to catch the ball out of the backfield but still be able to run rough between the tackles.”
Edwards-Helaire played in and won the College Football Playoff National Championship against Clemson. He had seven 100-yard rushing games on the season, with two coming against top-ranked schools like Alabama and Georgia. Five others came against SEC schools like Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi and Vanderbilt.
Apart from his football ability, Mahomes was excited to add more character and competition to the running back room.
“You can tell he’s a high-character guy,” Mahomes continued. “He loves football. For me, he (General Manager Brett Veach) asked me, and obviously, I wanted to add to the offense, obviously to help me out and to help our team out. So, Clyde was the first name that came to mind and I know we have a great running back room already, so I think just bringing him in, I know he’ll fit right in and he’ll compete. And we’ll be able to bring the best out of each other, ever single position group, and go out there and play our best football hopefully this next season.”
It’s not the most shocking thing in the world that Mahomes was thinking about adding to and helping out the offense. It’s also not surprising that he chose a player who caught 55 passes last season for over 400 yards.
Later, Mahomes would tell reporters that having a good running game takes the Chiefs’ offense up a notch, citing the late-season explosion by Damien Williams. He’s clearly quite excited about the competition brewing in the Chiefs’ locker room, thinking it will bring out the best in all of them.
“As far as the running backs with Clyde and those guys, I think if you look at when we had Damien (Williams) rolling and he was healthy and how much he really expanded our game, our team and the way he was playing in the playoffs and then the Super Bowl and how he was able to kind of take our offense to the next level, I think in any offense, you have to have that running game to really take it over the top. So, to have him, getting Darrel Williams back, getting Darwin Thompson more accustomed to the offense and then letting him get more and more ingrained. And then adding Clyde and DeAndré (Washington), I think we’re going to have a lot of great running backs that will be able to really care and put in the work to be the best.”
The analytics experts might disagree with Mahomes on the importance of a running game, but I’ll trust the guy playing every down on offense. If adding Edwards-Helaire gives Mahomes any more confidence to go out there and do what he does best, it’s a worthy investment that will pay dividends for Kansas City.
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