Chiefs' Clyde Edwards-Helaire: Option not picked up

Kansas City declined Edwards-Helaire's fifth-year option for 2024, Adam Teicher of ESPN.com reports.

Injuries have prevented Edwards-Helaire from building on a rookie season in which he led the team with 803 rushing yards. During the 2022 campaign, the 2020 first-rounder lost the starting job to seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco and rushed for just 302 yards in 10 games before suffering a high-ankle sprain in Week 11 against the Chargers, ending his regular season. Edwards-Helaire's fifth-year option would have been fully guaranteed at $5.46 million, but now he's a candidate to enter free agency in 2024. He figures to work behind Pacheco in a Kansas City backfield that also includes Jerick McKinnon, who the team re-signed Tuesday.