The Chiefs have a crowd at RB. Will it be Edwards-Helaire, Williams or a committee?
On the opening night of the NFL Draft, Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough received a call. It came from the team’s virtual draft room, a reserved setting for general manager Brett Veach, coach Andy Reid, owner Clark Hunt and a revolving door of necessary personnel.
As the phone buzzed when the Chiefs were on the clock, McCullough knew his sudden place in the latter category implicated good news — they must be considering supplementing his position group in the first round.
And he knew who they would be locked in on — LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot. Wow, it’s about to go down,’” McCullough said. “I obviously went in (to the virtual draft room) and was excited about Clyde. I just couldn’t stop smiling.”
This is where the fun part begins.
But the challenging part, too.
McCullough’s running backs room became fuller, more talented and perhaps more complicated. In a good way.
In this offseason, the Chiefs have added Edwards-Helaire with their first pick of the draft and signed free agent DeAndre Washington. They still have incumbent starter Damien Williams, who for the second straight season played his best football when it mattered most and even had an argument in the Super Bowl MVP conversation. Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson will also be back.
And yet there are only so many touches to go around in an offense that has no plans to subtract throws from quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
So ... what’s the plan?
“You know, we have some high-end players in that room,” McCullough said. “And I know (even) with some guys returning, guys we feel comfortable with, you always want to enhance the room and create competition and raise the level of the room. I think that’s what we have.
“How it all shakes out ultimately, we’re going to let that thing play out on the football field. That’s the beauty of our game. We’ll get a chance to go out and see what’s what. Our whole room knows that. The guys are looking forward to it. They get along well — very competitive (but) very supportive. And they know at the end of the day, what they do will speak to what their role is when the season gets started. I’m looking forward to that.”
A delay in on-field work isn’t helping the search for the best answers. The Chiefs would be comfortable using a committee, of sorts. They’d also be perfectly fine if someone grabbed the job and ran with it.
McCullough has familiarity with most of the group, and he’s been impressed with Edwards-Helaire’s attentiveness in team meetings. McCullough also praised the first-round pick’s ability to make defenders miss in tight spaces, particularly the first defender, “either by making him miss or running through him.”
But he’s yet to see Edwards-Helaire in an NFL uniform. Yet to see how that will play out at this level. It’s early, in other words, to carve him out a role.
And that might not be the preference anyway — for any of the backs.
“Everybody in this offense, all the halfbacks need to be able to do everything,” McCullough said. “And then we’ll let everything sort itself out from there. Clyde, he’s not going to be pigeon-holed into ‘This guy is going to be a third-down back, or this guy is this or this guy is that.’ He’s going to take on everything the offense has, and we’ll let the chips fall as they may.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 7:00 AM with the headline "The Chiefs have a crowd at RB. Will it be Edwards-Helaire, Williams or a committee?."