Clyde Edwards-Helaire leaves Chiefs vs. Steelers with collarbone injury

The Kansas City Chiefs are going to be without second-year running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire for a bit as they check out a collarbone injury. The team announced that he’s questionable to return in a game in which they’re already up by 30 as of press time.

UPDATE: The Chiefs downgraded him to out later in the third quarter.

Edwards-Helaire went down hard on a hit in the third quarter in which it looked as if he hurt his shoulder. Later the report came back as a collarbone injury, and the running back was clearly in pain on the Chiefs’ sideline.

Given the lopsided nature of the game, it makes little sense to bring back Edwards-Helaire when the backups are likely coming in soon enough anyway, Derrick Gore and Darrel Williams are clearly able to handle the load, even as the Chiefs likely lean even more into the running game to eat up more clock and make the results final.

The Chiefs watched Clyde Edwards-Helaire leave with a collarbone injury.

A collarbone injury can be troublesome for Edwards-Helaire and the Chiefs going forward, however. Most Chiefs fans will likely remember Tyreek Hill missing four-plus weeks with a broken clavicle back in the first half of the 2019 season, and if Edwards-Helaire is out for that amount of time, we won’t see him again until the postseason.

The Chiefs also have Jerick McKinnon on injured reserve right now, so it will be interesting to see what they do for depth going forward if CEH is ruled out of this game and could miss more time going forward. Elijah McGuire is one option, a player who is currently on the team’s practice squad.