{"id":96339,"date":"2020-10-15T20:38:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=96339"},"modified":"2020-10-15T20:50:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:50:09","slug":"leveon-bell-clyde-edwards-helaire-fantasy-football-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/10\/15\/leveon-bell-clyde-edwards-helaire-fantasy-football-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"Le\u2019Veon Bell, Clyde Edwards-Helaire Fantasy Football Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rich just keep getting richer, as the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> signed<\/a> running back Le\u2019Veon Bell<\/strong><\/a> to a one-year deal. As far as fantasy football is concerned, this move drastically affects the value of both Bell and rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire<\/a>.<\/strong> Edwards-Helaire enjoyed complete control of the backfield up until this point and was the RB12 heading into Week 6. Bell will obviously affect Edwards-Helaire, but who will see the majority of the touches?<\/p>\n

Fantasy Football Outlook: Le\u2019Veon Bell, Clyde Edwards-Helaire With Kansas City Chiefs<\/h2>\n

Chasing the Talent<\/h3>\n

Needless to say, the more talented running back will eventually see more opportunities and be more valuable on a per-touch basis. Both of these players are talented in their own right \u2013 Bell has an incredible track record, while Edwards-Helaire has the draft pedigree and youth on his side. Let\u2019s take a look at the film and numbers to see which back is more likely to make the most of their opportunities.<\/p>\n

Traditional stats would tell you that Edwards-Helaire is better, but those can be misleading. Rushing production has more to do with the blocking and scheme than the actual back, and Edwards-Helaire was in an immeasurably better situation than Le\u2019Veon Bell. Because of this, the best resource available is probably Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n

According to PFF, Le\u2019Veon Bell has actually been the better running back this year. While he\u2019s a far cry from his former self, his current 73.7 overall grade would be good for 14th<\/sup> in the league, if he had enough snaps to qualify. Edwards-Helaire, meanwhile, is down at RB22. A deeper dive in their grades shows that Bell is the better runner and pass-blocker, while Edwards-Helaire has better hands. There isn\u2019t much of a difference, but Bell holds the slight edge here.<\/p>\n

Bell still has the talent to be a good fantasy back, but is he a good scheme fit? Bell\u2019s patient running style can be absolutely lethal behind a good offensive line, but it doesn\u2019t work if the line cannot win at the point of attack. This isn\u2019t great news for Bell, as Kansas City ranks 17th<\/sup> in Football Outsiders\u2019 Adjusted Line Yards, just two spots ahead of the New York Jets. Edwards-Helaire\u2019s more aggressive run style is probably a better fit for the blocking, although both guys should find some type of success.<\/p>\n

Le\u2019Veon Bell, Clyde Edwards-Helaire Projected Workload<\/h3>\n

Ultimately, the difference in talent between these two is negligible. It\u2019s highly unlikely that one back makes the other completely irrelevant, so let\u2019s take a look at how Kansas City will use their new committee. Entering the season, Kansas City planned on using a committee approach with Edwards-Helaire and Damien Williams<\/a><\/strong>. However, Williams opted out, allowing Edwards-Helaire to become the de-facto workhorse by default.<\/p>\n

Chances are, Bell is going to play the Williams role in the offense. Both players can make plays in all three phases of the game and will probably see a pretty even split in touches, with the slight overall edge going to Edwards-Helaire. However, Bell will probably be the primary goal line back. So far in his short career, Edwards-Helaire has not been able to get the job done on the goal line. According to Pro Football Reference, Edwards-Helaire has seven carries within the five-yard line. Those carries have gone for a collective negative three yards and no touchdowns, which is hilariously bad. Bell can\u2019t possibly be worse than that, and should earn most of that valuable work.<\/p>\n

Right now, this backfield projects as a poor mans\u2019 version of the Nick Chubb<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Kareem Hunt<\/a><\/strong> duo in Cleveland. Kansas City\u2019s offense is probably the best in football, and should be able to keep Edwards-Helaire and Bell as mid-tier RB2\u2019s with RB1 touchdown upside. The presumed red zone work should make Bell the more valuable commodity, but both players will remain fantasy-relevant the rest of the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does the Le’Veon Bell signing affect the fantasy football value of Kansas City Chiefs rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":96206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[6260,3341,294,61,2234,98,218,40,3584,1576],"class_list":["post-96339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","tag-clyde-edwards-helaire","tag-damien-williams","tag-fantasy-football","tag-football","tag-kareem-hunt","tag-leveon-bell","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-nick-chubb","tag-patrick-mahomes"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}