The Kansas City Chiefs have waived running back and former first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
The Chiefs announced the decision Monday afternoon. Shortly before the announcement, Edwards-Helaire released a statement on social media addressing the Chiefs, Kansas City and the team’s fans.
“Love ya KC!” Edwards-Helaire wrote. “A family I didn’t know I needed, y’all made a Kid from Baton Rouge dreams come true! To Chiefs Kingdom, its all love and the support I had in troubling times will forever be unmatched from you guys! With love!”
Love ya KC! A family I didn’t know I needed, y’all made a Kid from Baton Rouge dreams come true!
To Chiefs Kingdom , its all love and the support I had in troubling times will forever be unmatched from you guys! With love! ❤️ 💛-Clydro ✌🏾
— GLYDE (@Clydro_22) December 16, 2024
The Chiefs selected Edwards-Helaire with the 32nd pick of the first round of the 2020 draft. He was the first running back drafted that year after a career at LSU as an All-SEC running back for the 2019 Tigers team that won a national championship behind a historic offense that featured future NFL stars Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase.
Edwards-Helaire had a standout rookie season with Kansas City in 2020. He tallied 1,100 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns as the featured back for a Chiefs team that went 13-1 in a COVID-shortened campaign and advanced to the Super Bowl won by Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Edwards-Helaire played three more seasons with the Chiefs and won Super Bowls in each of the last two seasons. But his role and his production dwindled in each season after his rookie campaign, and he lost his starting job in 2022 to then-rookie Isiah Pacheco.
The Chiefs placed Edwards-Helaire on the non-football illness list on Sept. 2 ahead of their season opener, and he has not played in a game this season. Edwards-Helaire previously announced on July 29 the he’s been living with PTSD.
Living With PTSD is no small feat, its hard and very overwhelming . Within the last month Ive Had many flare ups and the Amazing staff here at the #Chiefs have been helping me get through some tough times.
I’ll be back rolling next Practice! All Love , Glydro ❤️💛— GLYDE (@Clydro_22) July 29, 2024
He opened up about his condition and told reporters days later that that the PTSD has resulted in cyclic vomiting syndrome and that he’s required hospital stays.
“I have PTSD and cyclic vomiting syndrome,” he said on Aug. 1. “So it’s something that’s kind of neurologically that they just kind of help me with and walk through it.
“Sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital, something — I can’t stop throwing up. Nothing pretty much to stop it. … But it’s real, real bad dehydration, dropping weight real fast. It’s really just, mentally, just not being there.”
He said that he’s been dealing with PTSD since a 2018 shooting incident while he was at LSU. He and linebacker Jared Small were involved in a fatal shooting when someone attempted to rob them at gunpoint, according to Baton Rouge police.
Edwards-Helaire described the incident as “a self-defense situation” and prosecutors determined that the shooting was an instance of justifiable force. Charges were never filed against the players, and they were released.
He’s since acknowledged that he was the one to pull the trigger in the shooting that he said was to save Small’s life. He thanked his fellow Chiefs including head coach Andy Reid and tight end Travis Kelce on The Pivot podcast for helping him cope with his PTSD.