The Chiefs already reunited with Derrick Nnadi via trade recently; they will now add another familiar face on offense. Clyde Edwards-Helaire is returning to Kansas City, veteran reporter Jordan Schultz tweets. The deal bringing Edwards-Helaire back will be a practice squad arrangement.

Edwards-Helaire spent the offseason with the Saints, who had picked him up after the Chiefs waived him late last year. The former first-round pick, however, will follow Kareem Hunt in booking a second stint with the Chiefs.

Selected 32nd overall in 2020, Edwards-Helaire posted 1,100 scrimmage yards as a rookie while operating as a starter. He missed three games along the way, however, and injuries remained an issue across his first Kansas City stint. By 2023, the LSU product had seen a major drop in usage, and it will be interesting to see where his role in the 2025 backfield pecking order shakes out.

Edwards-Helaire managed 13 scoreless carries in two regular season Saints appearances last year. New Orleans elected to move on yesterday in a move which came as little surprise based on that sparse workload. Changing teams just before Week 1, Edwards-Helaire will now reacclimate to a familiar offense while looking to chip on offensively. The Chiefs still have Hunt along with Isiah Pacheco in place; they also added Elijah Mitchell in free agency.

Mitchell and Hunt are both pending 2026 free agents. Pacheco is entering the final year of his rookie contract, so he too could depart on the open market next spring. With plenty of future uncertainty in the backfield, Edwards-Helaire could play his way into a larger role for next season. For now, he will aim to regain his previous form during a second Kansas City stint.

Adam La Rose contributed to this post.

With Isiah Pacheco back, the Chiefs have stuck with Kareem Hunt as a key player on offense. Hunt’s Chiefs reunion continued a season of inactivity for Clyde Edwards-Helaire. The former first-round pick is now off the team’s roster entirely.

The Chiefs cut Edwards-Helaire on Monday, the fifth-year running back announced. This will clear a roster spot in Kansas City, as Marquise Brown ramps up toward a possible Week 16 debut with the team.

Edwards-Helaire had begun his career as a starter for the team, but he was unable to deliver on expectations that came with a No. 32 overall draft slot. Pacheco, a former seventh-round pick, had usurped him; the Chiefs had Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon playing ahead of Edwards-Helaire last season. Despite the team not re-signing McKinnon, it did not find room for CEH on its gameday rosters. Since being activated off the reserve/non-football illness list, Edwards-Helaire has been a healthy scratch.

It is possible Edwards-Helaire could be brought back on a practice squad deal, but the LSU alum’s message certainly does not point to that happening. If this is it for the 5-foot-7 back in Kansas City, he will close his Missouri run with 32 starts, 1,845 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.

The Chiefs used one of their activations to return Edwards-Helaire to the 53-man roster, doing so after having placed him on the NFI list to start the season. Once Pacheco suffered a broken leg in Week 2, however, Hunt quickly reentered the fray as the team’s primary back. Hunt remains on Kansas City’s roster, with UDFA Carson Steele still around as a third-stringer and Samaje Perine as a pass-down specialist. Teams do not make a habit of carrying five RBs, so the roster math makes sense here — especially with the Chiefs needing a spot for Brown.

Hosting J.K. Dobbins on a free agent visit April 2, the Chiefs instead chose to re-sign Edwards-Helaire to a one-year, $1.7MM deal. This release will leave the team on the hook for just less than $200K in dead money. Having neared a recovery from the shoulder injury that has sidelined him throughout the season, Brown is on track to be activated soon.

Debuting with a 138-yard, two-touchdown performance, Edwards-Helaire could not consistently display the pass-game chops that led to his first-round arrival. He also struggled with injuries, having missed time in each of his four seasons before this year’s NFI stint. Counting hte playoffs, Edwards-Helaire missed 24 games from 2020-23. Still, he profiles as an option for a running back-needy team on waivers. Clubs have until 3pm CT on Tuesday to submit a claim.

OCTOBER 15: The Chiefs’ running backs room is starting to show life. After the recent signing of the veteran Hunt to make up for Pacheco’s injury, Kansas City is now also able to add Edwards-Helaire to the roster again at long last. Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 announced that the team has officially activated Edwards-Helaire from the reserve/non-football illness list today.

The former first-round pick is far-removed from his impressive rookie season, but in a year where the Chiefs’ rushers have been continuously banged up, they’ll take whatever Edwards-Helaire has to offer.

OCTOBER 2: Presently associated more with skill-position players who are not available, the Chiefs will have one of their pieces back. Clyde Edwards-Helaire returned to practice Wednesday, joining many around the league coming back from an injured/illness list.

With Edwards-Helaire hitting the Chiefs’ reserve/non-football illness list after roster cutdown day, an activation will count toward the defending champions’ in-season limit. Though, the Chiefs are among the few teams that did not take advantage of the NFL’s new IR-stashing tweak this summer, keeping their activation total at eight for the time being. Given the way Kansas City’s skill corps has deteriorated, the team will undoubtedly be fine using an activation on CEH.

The Chiefs have seen Isiah Pacheco go down with a fibula fracture, leading to a committee of unwanted veterans and rookie UDFA Carson Steele. Andy Reid parked Steele after an early fumble against the Chargers, opening the door for recently signed Kareem Hunt to make his in-game return. Hunt and Broncos castoff Samaje Perine represent the top Chiefs RB options presently; Edwards-Helaire returning would at least bring a player in the champs’ offseason plans back into the mix.

While Edwards-Helaire has not come especially close to living up to the Chiefs’ hopes when they drafted him in the 2020 first round, he suddenly could be a more important figure while Pacheco rehabs. The player who usurped CEH as a Kansas City starter, Pacheco is set to be sidelined for at least five more weeks. A two-month recovery period could be on tap for the former seventh-round pick, leaving a makeshift backfield behind for a team suddenly dealing with two major wide receiver injuries — those affecting Marquise Brown and Rashee Rice.

Brown is out for at least the regular season’s remainder, while Rice is feared to have torn an ACL. The Chiefs have not confirmed Rice’s injury yet, but a return this season appears unlikely. Although Kansas City still has future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce, first-round pick Xavier Worthy and Super Bowl-era tertiary targets JuJu Smith-Schuster, Justin Watson and Mecole Hardman, but this offense has largely lacked explosiveness over the past season and change.

Edwards-Helaire, 25, re-signed on a one-year, $1.7MM deal, doing so on the same day the Chiefs hosted J.K. Dobbins on a visit. CEH played behind Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon during most of the past two seasons; he accumulated just 411 scrimmage yards in 2023. (McKinnon is no longer with the team.) He has not cleared 500 in a season since 2021 and played just four offensive snaps in Super Bowl LVIII. The Chiefs’ current situation, however, could make the LSU alum more valuable than he has been in a few years.

Kansas City will be shorthanded in the backfield to begin the season. The Chiefs placed Clyde Edwards-Helaire on the reserve/NFI list on Monday, as detailed by ESPN’s Field Yates.

As a result, Edwards-Helaire will be sidelined for at least the first four games of the season. Isiah Pacheco remains in place to handle lead back duties, while undrafted rookie Carson Steele made the roster after impressing during training camp and the preseason. Edwards-Helaire missed considerable time during training camp as well as Sunday’s practice, though, Yates’ colleague Adam Teicher notes. Today’s move thus comes as little surprise.

Edwards-Helaire, 25, entered the league with high expectations as the top running back in his class. The No. 32 pick in the 2020 draft racked up 1,100 scrimmage yards in his rookie season, but since then he has seen his usage rate and production drop with each passing season. A free agent departure during the spring would have been sensible since it would have provided him a fresh start. Instead, Edwards-Helaire remained in Kansas City on a one-year deal. The pact includes $1.33MM guaranteed and can reach a maximum value of $1.7MM.

The LSU alum logged a snap share of only 22% last season, but the Chiefs’ decision not to re-sign Jerick McKinnon left open the possibility for an increased pass-catching role in 2024. Kansas City recently added Samaje Perine, however, and the veteran is in place to handle third-down duties. Perine made 50 receptions last year with the Broncos, but he was let go with other options in place in the Denver backfield.

Pacheco received a career-high 205 carries in 2023, and he should again log a heavy workload on early downs in particular this season. Perine and Steele will offer complementary options in the backfield while Edwards-Helaire recovers. The latter will need a strong showing in 2024 to land another deal with the Chiefs (or to boost his 2025 free agent prospects). Today’s news is obviously not an encouraging start to the campaign in Edwards-Helaire’s case.