Travis Kelce deserves a major assist for Chiefs key offensive weapon's return

The Kansas City Chiefs brought back three-time Super Bowl winner Clyde Edwards-Helaire on a one-year contract, something few saw coming at the outset of the offseason. Edwards-Helaire is a former first-round pick, but has since been replaced by Isiah Pacheco as the team's starting running back.

The modern NFL has devalued the running back position to a fault. The Chiefs, with much bigger needs this offseason than a backup-at-best bell-cow, viewed Edwards-Helaire as an afterthought. Players like Chris Jones and L'Jarius Sneed, the first of whom signed long term while the second was traded to Tennessee, were at the forefront of Brett Veach's mind.

However, the same cannot be said about Travis Kelce. Per Edwards-Helaire, the thought of leaving Kelce was too much for the LSU product, hence why he decided to stay in KC.

“Personal level, from football to on a day-to-day basis, he’s someone that’s been in my corner and picked me up from my lowest of lows,” Edwards-Helaire said of Kelce on Monday, per the Kansas City Star. “And then when I was on my highest of highs, just being there, trying to put a rocket on my back. So you just have that camaraderie.”

Clyde Edwards-Helaire never wanted to leave the Kansas City Chiefs

For the Chiefs, keeping a player who knows their system well on the cheap makes all the sense in the world. Edwards-Helaire acknowledged there were other interested parties in his brief free agency, but he thinks of Kansas City as home and a place he can win. The difference of a few dollars won't change that.

“It’s just somewhere that I feel like I became a man,” Edwards-Helaire said.“I just knew this was the perfect place for me to not only become a three-time Super Bowl champion, but continue the legacy of the Chiefs and continue the things that I’m doing as a player."

CEH may not be the player he once was, but as a locker room presence and known commodity in the community, he's worth keeping around.