The 2020 NFL Draft is in the books, and that means it’s time for us to fully turn our attention to the 2020 NFL season and fantasy football. While COVID-19 means we can’t guarantee an NFL season, our league mates want us to be on our heels, unprepared for the season. Never you fear, Football Absurdity is here to cover all of the 78 fantasy football eligible players drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft. Keep in mind, most of these guys won’t get selected in your draft, but you’ll want to know these 2020 NFL draftees when your fantasy football draft comes around. The Kansas City Chiefs were Super Bowl champions, and the next time we saw them, it was when Andy Reid took exactly one fantasy football eligible player: the first running back off the board. Should you take Clyde Edwards-Helaire in your fantasy football drafts?
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FULL DRAFT RESULTS
| Rd | Pick | Player | Pos | School |
| 1 | 32 | Clyde Edwards-Helaire | RB | LSU |
| 2 | 31 | Willie Gay | LB | Mississippi St |
| 3 | 32 | Lucas Niang | OT | TCU |
| 4 | 32 | L’Jarius Sneed | S | Louisiana Tech |
| 5 | 31 | Mike Danna | DE | Michigan |
| 7 | 23 | BoPete Keyes | CB | Tulane |
Round 1, Pick 32: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Running Back, LSU (5’7” 207 lbs)
| 40-yd Dash | Bench Press | Vertical Jump | Broad Jump | 3 Cone | 20-yd shuttle | 60-yd shuttle |
| 4.6s (u) | 15 reps | 39.5 in | 123.0 in | — | — | — |
Courtesy: NFL.com, (u) = unofficial.
Depth Chart:
RB1 Clyde Edwards-Helaire
RB2 Damien Williams
RB3 Darwin Thompson
RB4 DeAndre Washington
TALENT
The easiest comparison here is that Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the new Maurice Jones-Drew. He runs like a bowling ball full of knives, he’s a little guy with massive quads, and… AND(!) he has a hyphen in his name. I will save us all some time here and call him CEH for the rest of this piece. He has an amazing jump cut and is an incredible, agile back. He doesn’t move the pile, but he uses his shiftiness and change-of-direction to avoid the pile entirely. CEH has exceptional patience, sometimes coming to a complete stop to analyze the situation before screaming to the edge. He may have pass protection issues but I watched four games of him and I didn’t see him in pass protection once. Which is weird, to say the least.
Nobody really doubts him as a top-five back in his class, just a smidge below the big three at worst. Some people put him as their #1 running back. I didn’t, just because of the question mark in pass pro. He more than made up for that by catching 55 balls for 453 yards for LSU last season.
2020 OPPORTUNITY
This is where things potentially get loaded for CEH and the Chiefs. There are a lot of pools of thought here. Some people want to point to Andy Reid’s track record with rookie skill position players (sorry Mark Schlereth) staying firmly on the bench. That sort of goes out the window when you consider that CEH is the first first-round running back that Andy Reid has ever taken. Ever. You also start to question this line of thinking when you consider the “He’s better than Brian [Westbrook]” anecdote.
Then you get the Damien Williams Truthers, who think that he’s staving off CEH. He might for the first few games of the season, but we all know what Damien Williams is at this point. He’s not durable, he’s not dependable, and he’s not a team’s RB1. Go ahead and throw partial season stats at me again and make excuses about how he was hurt. The team has consistently tried to supplement and replace Williams, and finally did one or the other with CEH. Worst case scenario, CEH is the starter and is getting the bulk of the downs by week four. His pass-catching ability makes D-Willy’s #1 trait redundant.
2020 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I’m all-in on Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Last offseason, we worked ourselves into a lather over Damien Williams in the Chiefs offense. Williams isn’t as good as CEH and a big chunk of the fantasy community talked themselves into him as a second-t, who isn’t as good as CEH, as a second-round pick. The bidding starts there. I think CEH settles in as a late-second round pick to price in the risk and downside. Why we didn’t do that for Damien Williams last season, I don’t know. But, CEH in the Chiefs offense has top-ten potential right off the bat. There’s a lot of excitement around him, but if you want him on your roster, you’re spending a premium pick on him. It’s that simple.
TALENT: 
(minus one Burrow for NO PASS BLOCKING ON TAPE!!!)
OPPORTUNITY:
2020 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
For more 2020 NFL Draft coverage, check out these:
The Rookie Roundup… Roundup
Fantasy Football Fallout: 2020 NFL Draft Round One
Football Absurdity Podcast: First Round Recap
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