The enduring conflict of digesting the Chiefs’ 1st-round pick (LSU’s Edwards-Helaire)
The weirdest draft on record for any legitimate sports league came with TV shots inside NFL coaches’ homes, Roger Goodell embracing boos and messing up basic facts, and technical glitches at every turn.
It was, in other words, awesome.
As a bonus — the Chiefs got better.
And with a plot twist!
We’ll get to that soon. But the first major live sports event in more than a month felt soothing. The same stuff football fans would’ve white-knuckled in normal times — Goodell mistakenly awarding Las Vegas the 2020 draft, for instance — instead felt somehow relatable.
Any draft is a strange event as television programming. There’s no way to get around that. It’s narratives created, then challenged, then knocked down. It’s quick-fired takes about a great pick or terrible pick that often age like an opened banana. It’s not for everyone, is the point.
But this draft was for more than most. It was an actual sports thing that happened, without anyone knowing the results ahead of time (Raiders joke goes here).
We saw Joe Burrow celebrate with his parents in the Midwest-est living room imaginable, we saw 322-pound left tackle Tristan Wirfs jump out of a swimming pool, and we saw Henry Ruggs wear a bathrobe.
We also saw the rest of the AFC West start to change — the Chargers are putting their long-term future into the arm of Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert (and got better on defense with Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray), the Broncos are putting Alabama star receiver Jerry Jeudy opposite Courtland Sutton for Drew Lock, and the Raiders got faster with Ruggs and reached on cornerback Damon Arnette.
More broadly, the Ravens accepted the gift of LSU linebacker Patrick Queen falling all the way to their 28th-overall pick. Ravens-Chiefs sure feels like this new decade’s Colts-Patriots.
That’s a lot to digest, and if the Chargers hit on Herbert they could be an interesting foil for the Chiefs in the AFC West. The Broncos are giving Lock, the Lee’s Summit High and Mizzou grad, every chance to succeed.
So, anyway. The Chiefs’ pick.
You don’t need a lot of tape to see what the Chiefs see in LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. He was a Paul Hornung Award finalist for the national champions, averaging 6.6 yards per carry with 55 receptions. He’s 5-foot-7 and 207 pounds, shifty and tough in that classic low-to-the-ground style.
He’s patient, with great vision, strong enough to run through arm-tackles at the line of scrimmage and wiggly enough to make linebackers and defensive backs miss at the second level.
If he can earn trust in pass protection (a non-negotiable for a Chiefs running back) he is a near-perfect fit for head coach Andy Reid.
The Chiefs’ decision-makers — led by Reid and general manager Brett Veach — have prioritized helping Patrick Mahomes from the moment they realized he was as good as they’d hoped.
As much as anything else, that’s why they overpaid in free agency for Sammy Watkins. As much as anything else, that’s why they used their first pick in last year’s draft on receiver Mecole Hardman.
It’s a sound philosophy and easy to defend, particularly as the back end of the first round saw several presumed targets taken. In the five picks before the Chiefs, teams selected two linebackers with coverage skills and two cornerbacks. Each could have been a fit for Kansas City.
If the Chiefs didn’t love the value of a defensive player there, and if they believe Edwards-Helaire can add the sort of balance and depth that went missing last year, then it’s easy to see why they’re excited about the pick.
The problem is largely in opportunity cost. The Chiefs are unlikely to have another shot at a defensive back like Alabama’s Xavier McKinney or Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield Jr. Southern Illinois’ Jeremy Chinn could be an interesting fit in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s scheme. Wisconsin linebacker Zack Baun is a widely respected talent who would’ve filled a need.
Certain corners of NFL analysis have gone overboard with the Running Backs Don’t Matter campaign. Of course they matter. They can change games. But good ones can often be had later in drafts, and even those who become productive players often have relatively short careers.
To emphasize: It’s easy to see why the Chiefs feel Edwards-Helaire is a fit. The league’s best offense just got even better. Defensive coordinators in the AFC West must be aghast.
There is an enduring conflict in digesting the pick, then.
It’s hard to have watched the Chiefs the last few years — even into their Super Bowl run — and not feel like a defensive back would help more than someone who might mean fewer passes for Mahomes.
But it’s also hard to have watched the Chiefs the last few years and not see that a running back with vision, patience, shiftiness and good hands could help ensure that the league’s greatest strength stays that way.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 12:30 AM.