Clyde Edwards-Helaire should be a top five pick in fantasy football

Kansas City Chiefs rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire should be an extremely high pick in all fantasy football drafts.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire was already an interesting fantasy football target who had massive upside.  Now, with Damien Williams deciding to opt-out of the 2020 season, he is undoubtedly one of the most interesting players at the running back position in the game.

In a relatively surprising selection, the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Edwards-Helaire with the final pick of the first round in the 2020 NFL Draft. Edwards-Helaire was not on many boards as the RB1 in the class, but he is an absolutely perfect fit for the Chiefs’ offense and now steps into an ideal situation for his talents.

Edwards-Helaire burst onto the scene last season as one of the primary playmakers on the dominant LSU offense. CEH carried the ball 215 times for the Tigers, piling up 1,414 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also caught 55 passes for 453 yards and one touchdown. Simply put, Edwards-Helaire was absolutely incredible in his final college season and showed an impressive overall skill-set that obviously caught the attention of NFL scouts.

With tremendous short-area quickness and impressive natural feel for the game, Edwards-Helaire works through traffic extremely well in the middle of the field. He shows good ball carrier vision, is quick through the hole and is incredibly difficult to bring down in space. Edwards-Helaire is also naturally elusive in the open field, consistently finishes with great leverage and maintains his balance after contact at an extremely high level.

His ability as a ball carrier is painfully obvious, but he is arguably an even more impressive playmaker as a pass-catcher. Edwards-Helaire is a sharp route runner, shows soft hands and does a great job of getting upfield quickly after the catch. He is a difficult matchup for nearly any linebacker in the middle of the field and will likely catch a ton of passes in the high octane Chiefs’ offensive attack.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is an extremely talented player who is set up for a huge workload in the best offense in the entire NFL. Christian McCaffrey is the clear top overall pick in fantasy football this year but after him, Edwards-Helaire has to be under consideration. I am still taking Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliott over him for now, but he should undoubtedly be on the radar in the top five.