Why Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid wants new contract for coordinator Eric Bieniemy
With Super Bowl LV in the books and the season officially over, the Chiefs will be focusing on free agency as the NFL’s new calendar year begins in March.
Evaluation of players will be at the fore, but the Chiefs also have a free-agent member of their coaching staff.
Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s contract expired after the Super Bowl, according to ESPN, and Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday that the two have talked about making sure he remains in Kansas City.
Now, it’s a matter of timing.
“We’ll get all that settled this next week and see where everything goes,” Reid said.
The prospect of having Bieniemy around for at least another season drew strong support from quarterback Patrick Mahomes the day after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“To have him back and the leader that he is in our locker room, it kind of sets the tone, it sets the culture and obviously he’ll continue to improve our offense,” Mahomes said Monday. “I think that’s what made our offense so good the last few years. You look at the offense that we ran two years ago to the offense now, it’s gotten better and better, it’s changed so much.”
Bieniemy joined the Chiefs’ coaching staff in 2013 as running backs coach before Reid promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2018. That promotion coincided with Mahomes’ first year as the team’s starting quarterback.
Over the past three seasons with Bieniemy as offensive coordinator, the Chiefs’ offense has ranked first in total yards twice (2018 and 2020) and sixth (in 2019). The Chiefs also ranked first in points per game in 2018, fifth in 2019 and sixth in 2020.
With the success enjoyed by the Chiefs’ high-powered offense, Bieniemy became one of the NFL’s hottest head-coaching candidates. He has interviewed for multiple vacancies, including six in the most recent hiring cycle.
But, somewhat inexplicably, Bieniemy is yet to land a head-coaching job despite public support from Reid and even Mahomes.
Having Bieniemy return to the Chiefs’ sidelines certainly makes sense, as he knows the system and culture of Reid’s team. Continuity, combined with Bieniemy’s creative nature — he designed left tackle Eric Fisher’s “Catch and Release” touchdown play, for instance — would seem to help ensure the offense keeps evolving.
“We can’t just rely on the same things, the same plays,” Mahomes said. “We have to keep getting better — we have to keep getting new plays, just keep progressing as a unit.
“And I think having him back along with Coach Reid, (quarterbacks) Coach (Mike) Kafka, all these guys, will keep making us a hard offense to stop at the end of the day.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 1:24 PM.
