Chiefs vs. Cardinals: Lessons learned from dominant Week 1 victory
By Matt Conner
Clyde effects felt early
It’s been a long offseason for Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Fans have hopped from one running back bandwagon to the next—from Ronald Jones, who signed as a free agent in March, to Isiah Pacheco, who was drafted in April—and that was following a stellar postseason run by Jerick McKinnon for a Chiefs offense that fell just short of another Super Bowl appearance.
With McKinnon back and the aforementioned competitors in tow, it seemed like Edwards-Helaire was being overlooked by fans anxious to see new faces enter the mix. However, Edwards-Helaire also made it clear that he was healthy for the first time in an offseason in his career, something he told us about here at Arrowhead Addict in an early offseason interview.
When push came to shove, the Chiefs ended up leaning on Edwards-Helaire against the Arizona Cardinals and the results were very solid from the first plays of the game. CEH had two touchdowns and 70 yards from scrimmage in the first half alone before giving way to Jerick McKinnon and Isiah Pacheco to close out a blowout win.
This doesn’t mean that Edwards-Helaire has properly shed any criticism heaped upon him, since he’s certainly had good games in the past. But if he can remain a productive asset on this new-look offense, it’s going to start changing the narrative around the former first round pick.