Chiefs waive former first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs on Monday waived running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, a former first-round draft pick who had fallen far down their depth chart.

Edwards-Helaire had hinted at the move in a message sent to X.

“Love you KC!” Edwards-Helaire wrote. “A family I didn’t know I needed, you all made a Kid from Baton Rouge dreams come true!

“To the Chiefs Kingdom, it’s all love and the support I had in difficult times will forever be unmatched from you! With love!”

Edwards-Helaire, who has not played this season, was the fifth of five running backs on the Chiefs’ roster, behind Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt, Samaje Perine and Carson Steele. The Chiefs will need the guard spot soon.

Wide receiver Hollywood Brown returned to practice last week and could be activated from injured reserve in time for Saturday’s game against the Houston Texans at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs drafted Edwards-Helaire out of LSU in 2020. He led the team in rushing that season with 803 yards, but his production declined every year after that. He lost his starting spot to Pacheco during the 2022 season and never regained it.

During training camp this year, Edwards-Helaire talked about his experience with PTSD stemming from an incident in 2018 when he was in college.

Two LSU football players were trying to sell an electronic item when one of them fatally shot an 18-year-old man who tried to rob them, police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said. Police did not identify the players, but the Associated Press reported that Edwards-Helaire was one of them.

Edwards-Helaire occasionally missed practice during his time with the Chiefs to manage his condition. The Chiefs placed him on the non-football illness list to begin this season before activating him.

“Sometimes I get hospitalized, things like, I can’t stop throwing up and it’s just, I don’t (know) much to stop it,” Edwards-Helaire said in August. bad dehydration … but it’s really just mental just not being there.”