It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the running backs. Today, we take a look at Clyde Edwards-Helaire, a running back whose team lost its best wide receiver, a running back of comparable ability, and a player that somehow has people running scared like his 2021 campaign was the beginning of the end for CEH. What can we expect from Edwards-Helaire in his 2022 fantasy football campaign?
Clyde Edwards-Helaire ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB25, 58 overall
Average Auction Value: $5.5
Clyde Edwards-Helaire Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 10 | 10 | 119 | 517 | 4 | 23 | 19 | 129 | 2 | 138 | 142 | 646 |
| 2020 | 13 | 13 | 181 | 803 | 4 | 54 | 36 | 297 | 1 | 217 | 235 | 1100 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 4.34 | 11.9 | 51.7 | 2.30 | 1.90 | 82.6% | 5.61 | 6.79 | 13.80 | 14.20 | 64.6 |
| 2020 | 4.44 | 13.9 | 61.8 | 4.15 | 2.77 | 66.7% | 5.50 | 8.25 | 16.69 | 18.08 | 84.62 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 98.6 | 108.1 | 117.6 | 9.86 | 10.81 | 11.8 | 0.71 | 0.78 | 0.85 |
| 2020 | 140 | 158 | 176 | 10.77 | 12.15 | 13.5 | 0.65 | 0.73 | 0.81 |
2022 Clyde Edwards-Helaire Fantasy Football Overview:
If you wanted to build an offseason that would excite Clyde Edwards-Helaireheads, it would be losing Tyreek Hill, losing Darrel Williams, and not doing much to replace the skills and production of either. The Chiefs lost those two players, who accounted for over 210 targets last year, and replaced them with Ronald Jones, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Skyy Moore. That is to say, a bunch of wide receivers who are not on the same skill level as Tyreek and a running back who does not have the same receiving chops as Darrel Williams.
Not to get into a vacated targets argument here, but replacing Darrel Williams (57 targets, #12 in the league) for Ronald Jones, who averages half as many targets throughout his career signals to me a turn toward CEH in the passing game. CEH proved he could handle that volume his rookie year, as he had 54 targets in just 13 games instead of the 23 he had in ten games last season. If you look at the games stat instead of the targets stat there, you also get another problem with Edwards-Helaire.
CEH missed seven games in 2021 after missing three games in 2020, which is a major problem for CEH. He just can’t seem to stay on the field. Another problem seems to be the Chiefs’ complete unwillingness to give him goal-line carries. He has ten career goal-line carries, and four of these came against the Texans in the literal first game of his career. So, there seem to be some serious warts surrounding Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and this is, understandably, scaring a lot of people off of him in drafts.
2022 Clyde Edwards-Helaire Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Clyde Edwards-Helaire Salary Cap Value: $10
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
To be honest with you? I’m not entirely sure what to make of CEH at this point, but I know that he is all upside at his price. His main bugaboos: injuries, losing targets, and a lack of goal-line touches, can all get fixed in the blink of an eye should he just stay healthy and the Chiefs decide to focus their offense on their first-round selection that Andy Reid reportedly said was better than Brian Westbrook. So, CEH is worth a shot, especially in salary cap drafts. He costs just $5 there, which is $1 more than Mark Ingram, and just $2 more than Chris Carson. There’s essentially no downside at that price point. In snake drafts, however, I worry a bit more. CEH goes with the 60th pick overall, as the RB26. That’s two picks after Breece Hall, and three picks before A.J. Dillon. I would much rather have one or both of these backs than Clyde Edwards-Helaire, so I don’t see myself having any CEH in snake drafts unless he falls a round or two from his ADP.
Best Case Scenario:
Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s weird issues all fade away and he finishes as a top-fifteen running back while being near the league lead in goal-line carries.
Worst Case Scenario:
Clyde Edwards-Helaire broke into his darkest timeline, and he ends up with 34 goal-line carries and zero touchdowns on said carries.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Header Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/kansas-city-chiefs-kansas-city-4779222/ under CC-BY SA 4.0]
