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Chiefs waive former 1st-round RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire

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Chiefs waive former 1st-round RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire

KANSAS CITY, MO – SEPTEMBER 15: Clyde Edwards-Helaire #25 of the Kansas City Chiefs stands during the national anthem against the Los Angeles Chargers at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on September 15, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

The Kansas City Chiefs have waived running back and former first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

The Chiefs announced the decision Monday afternoon. Shortly before the announcement, Edwards-Helaire released a statement on social media addressing the Chiefs, Kansas City and the team’s fans.

“Love ya KC!” Edwards-Helaire wrote. “A family I didn’t know I needed, y’all made a Kid from Baton Rouge dreams come true! To Chiefs Kingdom, its all love and the support I had in troubling times will forever be unmatched from you guys! With love!”

The Chiefs selected Edwards-Helaire with the 32nd pick of the first round of the 2020 draft. He was the first running back drafted that year after a standout career at LSU as an All-SEC running back for the 2019 Tigers team that won a national championship behind a historic offense that featured future NFL stars Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase.

Edwards-Helaire had a standout rookie season with Kansas City in 2020. He tallied 1,100 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns as the featured back for a Chiefs team that went 13-1 in a COVID-shortened campaign and advanced to the Super Bowl won by Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Edwards-Helaire played three more seasons with the Chiefs and won Super Bowls in each of the last two seasons. But his role and his production dwindled in each season after his rookie campaign, and he lost his starting job in 2022 to then-rookie Isiah Pacheco.

The Chiefs placed Edwards-Helaire on the non-football illness list on Sept. 2 ahead of their season opener, and he has not played in a game this season. Edwards-Helaire previously announced on July 29 the he’s been living with PTSD.

He told reporters days later that that the PTSD has resulted in cyclic vomiting syndrome and that he’s required hospital stays.

“I have PTSD and cyclic vomiting syndrome,” he told reporters on Aug. 1. “So it’s something kind of neurologically that they just kind of help me with and walk through it.”

“Sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital, something like I can’t stop throwing up,” he added. “Nothing pretty much can stop it. … But it’s real, real bad dehydration, dropping weight real fast. It’s really just, mentally, not being there.”

He said that he’s been dealing with PTSD since a 2018 incident while he was at LSU. He was one of two players involved in a shooting when someone attempted to rob them, according to Baton Rouge police.

Edwards-Helaire described the incident as “a self-defense situation” and prosecutors determined that the shooting was an instance of justifiable force. Sources confirmed to the Associated Press and WAFB-TV at the time that he was indeed one of the players involved. Charges were never filed against the players and they were released.

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