KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs placed Clyde Edwards-Helaire on the non-football illness list Monday, ensuring the running back will miss at least the first four games of the regular season.
The decision comes after a series of intermittent absences for the 25-year-old throughout the preseason, including Sunday’s workout as the club prepares to host Baltimore in the season opener Thursday night. Last month Edwards-Helaire revealed he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and cyclic vomiting syndrome.
Under the non-football illness list rules in the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, clubs are not obligated for a player’s weekly salary while on the list. The Chiefs plan to keep Edwards-Helaire, who is scheduled to make $1.125 million this season, on the payroll and continue providing him assistance in his treatment a source tells Chiefs Digest. The club also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Edwards-Helaire returning to the field later this season.
The source added the team focuses on getting Edwards-Helaire into a “good place” where he can consider returning to the field.
“Our main focus is on (Edwards-Helaire). Not concerned about football at this point.”
When he revealed his diagnosis last month, Edwards-Helaire said most of his physical and mental health challenges have stemmed from his PTSD which is connected to a December 2018 self-defense incident while he was a student at LSU. An 18-year-old man who was allegedly trying to rob Edwards-Helaire and a teammate at gunpoint was fatally shot. A Louisiana prosecutor ruled the football player responded with justifiable force.
The illness has often left Edwards-Helaire dehydrated and even led to hospitalizations.
“It’s something that’s kind of neurological that they just help me with and walk through it and I mean I’ve – sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital,” Edwards-Helaire said on Aug. 1. “Something like can’t stop throwing up and it’s just – I can’t like – no – nothing pretty much to stop it and the only person who kind of put me in the right direction was (assistant athletic trainer) Julie Frymyer early on.”
Teammates, coaches and team employees were aware of Edwards-Helaire’s diagnosis before his public reveal last month. In addition to Frymyer and other members of the organization, he credited teammates such as Travis Kelce and former Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney with helping him through difficult days.
“They’ll know like ahead of time like, ‘Okay, Clyde might not – he’s not laughing, he’s not giggling, he’s not himself,'” Edwards-Helaire said last month. “‘We just got to make sure we are checking on him as the person, not to just be out here the energy giver, the laugher, the guy that kind of keeps the locker room going.’ I feel like that’s a big part of what I bring and then once my number is called, it’s go out there and perform and they know it’s no question with that. So, I feel like that’s just what it is.”
The placement of Edwards-Helaire on the non-football illness list leaves the Chiefs with three running backs on the active roster in Isiah Pacheco, Carson Steele and newly signed free agent Samaje Perine. The club also carries two running backs on the practice squad, Keaontay Ingram and Emani Bailey who spent training camp with the team.
