The Kansas City Chiefs have officially turned down the contractual option to exercise a fifth year for Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
The writing has been on a wall for quite some time, but it wasn’t official until Tuesday. That was when the Kansas City Chiefs made it clear that they would not be contractually exercising a fifth-year option for running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire for the 2024 season.
Given that Edwards-Helaire was a former first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Chiefs had until Tuesday’s deadline in order to exercise the option. However, given Edwards-Helaire’s lack of steady production in K.C., it made more sense to allow him to walk than it did to bring him back at a higher cap hit than ever before.
So far in his three-year career, Edwards-Helaire has 371 carries for 1,622 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, good for a fair 4.4 yards/carry average. Unfortunately, a series of injuries have kept him off of the field for any real length of time, which has led to a tandem of Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon taking over completely despite CEH being a healthy scratch.
There was some conjecture that Edwards-Helaire might be traded during the actual draft but nothing happened with it. There’s still time before the regular season begins, so maybe something will happen as training camp rolls around.
Other players with their fifth-year options declined include Chase Young of the Washington Commanders, Patrick Queen of the Baltimore Ravens, Cesar Ruiz of the New Orleans Saints, and Javon Kinlaw of the San Francisco 49ers.