Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s rollercoaster career with the Chiefs is over.
Kansas City waived the former first-round pick on Monday as he was buried deep on the depth chart after missing the start of the season with PTSD.
“Love ya KC! A family I didn’t know I needed, y’all made a Kid from Baton Rouge dreams come true!” Edwards-Helaire wrote on X.
“To Chiefs Kingdom , its all love and the support I had in troubling times will forever be unmatched from you guys! With love!”
Edwards-Helaire was the first-round draft pick of the Chiefs in 2020 after helping LSU win the national championship alongside Joe Burrow.
Edwards-Helaire ran for 803 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie and was a crucial part of a Chiefs team that lost to the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.
However, Edwards-Helaire missed chunks of the following seasons due to injury and eventually fell behind rising star Isiah Pacheco as the team’s starter.
The 25-year-old then started this season on the NFL’s Reserve/Non-football illness as it was revealed he was battling PTSD.
ESPN reported that the PTSD was connected to a 2018 robbery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when he was one of two LSU football players involved in a shooting of a man trying to rob them.
It is unclear if Edwards-Helaire or LSU teammate Jared Small was the one who fired the gun that killed the robber in what was ruled as a justifiable force by a prosecutor.
“Sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital, something I can’t stop throwing up and it’s just, I [don’t] know [anything] pretty much to stop it,” Edwards-Helaire said at the beginning of the season. “Real bad dehydration … but it’s really just mentally just not being there…. Living With PTSD is no small feat, it’s hard and very overwhelming [sic].
“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!”
The Chiefs activated Edwards-Helaire in mid-October, but he did not play for the team this season.
