We are knee deep in draft season. And although we have plenty of more in-depth analysis, we wanted to take a minute to break down/sum up why we are encouraging all of our readers to draft Clyde Edwards Helaire (CEH).
- Lest we forget what we thought of CEH coming out of LSU, and being supplanted in the Kansas City (KC) Offense. He is a perfect fit for their offense, and has talent regardless of scheme (that hasn’t changed)
- At the macro level KC (believe it or not) has a lot of positive regression coming their way in 2021 (specifically in red zone and 3rd down rebound)
- Additionally at the macro level, as we cited in Travis Kelce and the Chies vs Double-High Coverage, teams are figuring out (for better or worse) that the way you “slow down” the KC offense is with 2 deep safetys. As defenses catch on to this more and more, it not only helps Kelce, but keeps a small run game box (7 or less defenders in the box is going to happen more and more in 2021 for KC)
- Now to the micro: CEH averaged 21 touches/game (was an RB1) BEFORE Bell came into the picture, then dropped to RB22 and 11.9 touches/game AFTER (Bell is gone)
- What ultimately kept CEH from RB1 status last year was TD production. However, although the common narrative is that CEH has “trouble at the goaline”, this was not the case in college. More so, CEH went 0-6 early in the 2020 NFL season at the goaline early in the season. After that, he really didn’t get many shots for the rest of the season. Yet, when you take a closer look, you see most/if not all of those touches were blown up in the backfield. Knowing that KC is an analytics-driven team, they see that too, and know “those failed goaline carries were NOT his fault” (i.e. should be “blamed on the O-Line), and will likely lean back on him especially with no real competition for those carries in the KC RB group this year.
- Somewhat related to the above point, yet still as important to the grand scheme of things: KC invested ALOT in retooling their greatest weakness from 2020: OL skill and depth
For all of these reasons, to all that have reached out asking for advice: YES, draft CEH this year!