Kansas City Chiefs: Clyde Edwards-Helaire will be 2020 Rookie of the Year

Kansas City Chiefs rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire is an extremely talented player who has landed in the perfect situation. Barring injury, Edwards-Helaire will win the 2020 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

The Kansas City Chiefs surprised many when they took Clyde Edwards-Helaire with the final pick of the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. With obvious needs at cornerback and linebacker, most expected the Chiefs to take a defender in the first round. Running back was certainly talked about as a possibility for this team, but most of that talk was about D’Andre Swift, whose impressive quickness and burst seemed to fit their offense the best.

That being said, now that the Edwards-Helaire pick has happened, I can’t believe that we did not see this coming. Edwards-Helaire was an extremely important part of the explosive LSU offense last season, piling up 1,414 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns on 215 carries. Edwards-Helaire showed an incredible combination of short-area quickness and physicality as a runner. He is slippery in the open field, consistently finishes strong and shows great contact balance.

To put it simply, Edwards-Helaire is an incredibly difficult ball carrier to bring down to the ground. He shows good ball-carrier vision, works through traffic well and simply always seems to be moving forward. Make no mistake about it, this guy is going to be able to come in and make a massive immediate impact for the Kansas City Chiefs.

While his ability to make plays on the ground is impressive, Edwards-Helaire is arguably even better as a receiver out of the backfield. He is an impressive route runner out of the backfield, particularly shining on Texas or Angle routes where he was able to consistently shake free in the middle of the field and present an easy target for Joe Burrow throughout the 2019 season.

Edwards-Helaire also shows soft hands and has a knack for turning upfield and picking up yards after the catch quickly. Immediately after securing the catch, Edwards-Helaire makes a quick cut upfield and gets moving. After that, he lets his natural open-field elusiveness and impressive finishing ability take over.

Led by the great Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs have the best offense in the NFL and Edwards-Helaire only takes them to the next level. I fully expect him to come in and immediately dominate as both a runner and receiver for the Chiefs and is an obvious threat to win 2020 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Damien Williams has been great for Kansas City, but Edwards-Helaire is already a better player. Expect Andy Reid to feature his exciting rookie running back in 2020 and Edwards-Helaire will reward his coach with a big-time season-long performance.