Rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire became the Chiefs’ feature back the day Damien Williams opted out of the 2020 season. He remained in that role until the Chiefs signed veteran Le’Veon Bell last week.
Edwards-Helaire will lose snaps and touches to Bell.
Bell, though, had a heart-to-heart with Edwards-Helaire before signing with Kansas City.
“Le’Veon reached out to Clyde and had a conversation with him,” Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said, via Charles Goldman of USA Today. “And [Bell] told him basically, ‘I don’t want to step on your toes. I want to know if you’re OK with me coming in here.’ He’s a classy individual. It says a lot about the person, who does not want to come up and disrupt the chemistry that we have.”
In six games, Edwards-Helaire has 128 touches for an NFL-leading 682 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown. Bell played only two games with the Jets this season, seeing 22 touches for 113 yards.
His publicly stated desire for more touches played into the Jets’ decision to cut him.
“I know the conversation that I had with him, prior to him making his final decision, I was very impressed, just with some of his goals and different things like that” running backs coach Deland McCullough said. “They meld into what we want to get done here, and there was no level of selfishness or anything that I heard. He said, ‘Look, I’m coming in to get in where I fit in. I can help, and I know you guys will use me the right way, and whatever that is, I’m going to do [it].’”