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8 April 2024
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Clyde Edwards-Helaire has had his ups and downs on the field since he arrived in Kansas City in 2020.
But the former 1st Round pick found his stride near the end of the last season and has embraced the city as home, re-signing with the Chiefs this offseason on a one-year deal.
Edwards-Helaire spoke about his offseason and why he chose to return to Kansas City.
“Honestly this offseason has been nice. I’ve been kind of finishing some stuff with wedding planning and my fiancée, been able to do some stuff around my yard, a lot of fishing, tree cutting, stuff like that, a lot of maintenance,” CEH Said.
“Really, just being able to look back at a lot of things, have conversations just (about) actually becoming a free agent, it was a different experience at first and then just being able to hear, ping pong some things off different people, ping pong different situations, think about what possibly could be your future and then you make the best decision for you.
After surveying his options, Edwards-Helaire knew where he wanted to be.
“Obviously, that decision was to come back home to the Chiefs and keep things going in a direction that was trending in a positive direction.”
Edwards-Helaire experienced free agency for the first time in his career this offseason and explained how the new experience felt.
“The free agency process at first —initially—I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s slow, but it’s different. It’s something like… I never have experienced that, it’s not like high school recruitment, it’s not like college, it’s a completely different outtake on things.”
The Baton Rouge native has spent all four of his seasons in Kansas City and has welcomed the city as his second home.
“KC literally is home. I left Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I was born and raised and (was) drafted to the middle of the country where everybody was telling me it’s the best place on earth,” Edwards-Helaire said.
“The only thing I could do was embrace it. I was doing the thing I loved, playing football and grew the most in these last five years. (I) got engaged, actually figured out what life is, buying homes, helping my mom with things, helping my parents, it’s just somewhere that I feel like I became a man.”
Edwards-Helaire played in 15 games this season, the most since since he joined the Chiefs and played very well in the second half the season.
In fact, it seemed that the turning point in the season for the running back, was a Week 15 against the New England Patriots, where he had one of the longest plays of the Chiefs season on a 48-yard screen and made an impressive leaping catch in the back of the endzone on a six-yard touchdown pass.
“The big thing about that game and the big thing about, I’ll say, that play (48-yard screen), is just going into it I would say our offense was kind of in a stuttering position and I felt like even during the game everything was just kind of like that stagnant.
“If I had to be that spark in that situation, I knew if it wasn’t one play, it had to be multiple and that’s when I felt like I needed. I had that game in order to start stacking those things and from that point on, it was a cycle, it was like an avalanche and we just kept rolling with those things.”
Both plays helped give a much-needed jolt of confidence to CEH.
“I felt like that was one of those things that we needed and yeah, I’ll say it was a semi-spark for me and those things of knowing… just get back to who you are and always just be yourself. I wasn’t just on my high horse, knowing like okay you’ll finally get your opportunity to start, just go out there and be Clyde.”
As Edwards-Helaire enters his fifth season, he will look build on a strong end to last season as the Chiefs vie for a three-peat.