What strides can Clyde Edwards-Helaire make as a receiver in 2021?

The second-year running back is poised for a bigger role in the Chiefs passing game

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When Clyde Edwards-Helaire entered the 2020 NFL Draft, he was widely regarded as one of the better pass-catching running backs to come into the league in recent history. He had an advanced route tree, agility to get out of his breaks quickly, and soft hands to haul in passes. He was expected to be a major contributor in the Kansas City Chiefs passing game almost immediately.

One year later, Edwards-Helaire and the coaching staff are discussing ways to improve his ability as a receiver so he can live up to the potential he showed at LSU. So what happened in 2020? Why was Edwards-Helaire unable to make the impact in the passing game everyone — including himself — was expecting in year one?

Today we’ll take a look at some of the ways the Chiefs utilized Edwards-Helaire — both good and bad — and why Chiefs fans should be optimistic about his development and contribution to the offense in 2021.

The 2020 Passing Game

Let’s start with a clarification about Edwards-Helaire’s usage in the 2020 passing game. Some may see his overall impact as a receiver and think that his volume was low, when in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Edwards-Helaire had 54 targets in 13 games for the 2020 Chiefs, just over 4 targets a game. Projecting over 15 games — as most starters sat out Week 17 in 2020 — he would have ended up with 62 targets. Only Jamaal Charles’ 2013 season of a staggering 104 targets would have exceeded Edwards-Helaire’s 15-game pace for a running back in Andy Reid’s system. Quite simply, the volume of his targets in the passing game were not the problem.

However, the same cannot be said about his route tree. Edwards-Helaire was able to regularly beat man coverage to the flat against linebackers, particularly when working off of Travis Kelce in a slant-flat route combination. As this became more prevalent in the Chiefs’ playbook, defenses began switching or zoning over the flat, allowing a cornerback to drive downhill and make tackles for loss or for minimal gain.

The nature of the Chiefs offense also exacerbated this issue, with Patrick Mahomes routinely looking for deeper route combinations before ultimately checking down late to the flat. This meant that Edwards-Helaire had the defender on top of him too quickly to force a missed tackle, and the receptions would too often result in minimal gains.

While there were glimpses of a more developed route tree — the Week 3 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens was a true showcase of what Edwards-Helaire can do — his implementation was a bit more predictable than most expected entering the season. It was far from a “failure” of a season as a receiver, but the truncated offseason — and learning curve as a rookie in Reid’s scheme — definitely took its toll on his role in the offense.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The Chiefs were able to flex Edwards-Helaire out wide often enough in empty formations to showcase elements of his route running ability. He got to run mesh concepts, smoke routes, digs, angle routes, and showed off some exceptional ball tracking on wheel routes. The evidence was there that Edwards-Helaire could be an impact receiver for this Chiefs team, even if he didn’t always get those looks.

Maximizing Clyde in 2021

Kent Swanson @kent_swanson

Clyde Edwards-Helaire runs the best H-Post (Texas, Angle, whatever you prefer to call it) coming out of college recently. Andy Reid will be calling more of these for his rookie running back than he did last year. Oh hey, another play showing contact balance and lateral agility.

So how does this team turn the glimpses of Edwards-Helaire’s receiving ability into regular production? Well, the first way to maximize him comes from Clyde himself:

The biggest thing [to learn in 2020] was the pre-snap indications and pre-snap reads…that’s the biggest jump. That’s what you need to learn and understand…you need to read the fronts, whether they’re in zone or man, where the safeties are…the more you understand that, the more you understand your role and the next guy’s role.

Despite Edwards-Helaire’s clear grasp of the playbook he was given, he did still need to learn NFL-level adjustments within Reid’s scheme. We saw that he gave way to Darrel Williams on a large chunk of the Chiefs third down/late game situations, signaling that Reid trusted the veteran to handle protections and adjustments at the line. If Edwards-Helaire wasn’t able to stay on top of all of those — a completely understandable circumstance as a rookie without a true offseason — then it’s understandable that his responsibilities in the passing game were also limited.

That said, the runway is clear for Edwards-Helaire to make the year two jump as a receiver. He’s not having to learn a brand new playbook this offseason, and the Chiefs are fortunate to be able to get on-field work in minicamp. He naturally was able to pick up some of these adjustments on the fly during the 2020 season, but a full offseason to show Reid that he can handle these responsibilities will likely put him on the field more — and in more diverse roles as a receiver.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire has the talent and the ability to be a terrifying receiving threat at a time where the Chiefs need a consistent #3 receiver to step forward. The team clearly believes he can be effective in that role as well, and went so far as to move receivers coach Greg Lewis to the running back room in 2021. His tutelage — and the year two development in a “normal” offseason — will only make Edwards-Helaire a better receiving option for this Chiefs team.

Based on the comments and the work he’s putting in this offseason, I’m betting the glimpses we saw of Edwards-Helaire in 2020 — and the consistent work he put in at LSU — become the norm for the Chiefs this year.