Kansas City Chiefs: Clyde Edwards-Helaire on pace to break rookie record

Now, back to Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who shares similarities with Gary and Rice.

Like Gary, he’s a running back suddenly thrust into the main role after Damien Williams’ opting out of the season (though undeniably lessened by the signing of Le’Veon Bell). Like Rice, he landed on a team with an excellent offensive-minded head coach in Andy Reid and inarguably the league’s best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes.

Edwards-Helaire is averaging 88.7 yards from scrimmage per game, which is well below Gary’s 109.9, but if he keeps up the pace and plays in all 16 regular-season games, he should gain 1,419 yards from scrimmage. That would include 1,048 on the ground and 371 through the air. If that happens, he’d break Gary’s 21-year-old record.

Of course, looking at things right now, Edwards-Helaire’s position seems more akin to Rice’s than Gary’s, and by that, I mean that Edwards-Helaire has joined a team with many more options to do something with the football. In some games, Edwards-Helaire will be featured. Others, like in Week 9 against Carolina where he touched the ball a mere eight times for just 34 yards, he won’t be.

Ultimately, the individual record doesn’t matter. Having to choose, of course, Edwards-Helaire would pick a career closer to Rice’s, which included three Super Bowl rings, even if that means not securing this obscure rookie record. No offense to Edwards-Helaire, but his career certainly won’t equal that of Jerry Rice, but it should still surpass that of Olandis Gary.

Of this I’m sure: Edwards-Helaire wants one thing most of all, and it’s one thing that eluded both Rice in 1985 and Gary in 1999. Record be damned, Clyde Edwards-Helaire wants to help his team successfully defend its Super Bowl title.