The Washington Commanders got their guy.
Eric Bieniemy is finalizing a deal to become Washington’s new offensive coordinator, sources said. The pending hire ends a process that spanned interviews with eight candidates and took longer than a month. But the Commanders waited for Bieniemy, a two-time Super Bowl champion who has spent the last five seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator.
Bieniemy was offered the job Friday and the move is expected to be made official Saturday.
Bieniemy leaves an attractive gig with the Chiefs — and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes — but he wasn’t Kansas City’s primary play-caller, a duty that belongs to coach Andy Reid.
Bieniemy’s lack of play-calling experience has been perceived as a knock against him when going up for head coaching jobs. Bieniemy, who is Black, has interviewed for at least 15 head coach openings — only to be passed over each time. His inability to land a top job has brought increased scrutiny to the NFL’s minority hiring practices.
But Bieniemy will now be able to run the offense in Washington. Tapped to replace Scott Turner, Bieniemy inherits a group that has talent at running back (Brian Robinson Jr., Antonio Gibson) and wide receiver (Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel). He’s expected to work closely with quarterback Sam Howell, who coach Ron Rivera has said will be the team’s likely starter next season.
Though Bieniemy wasn’t Kansas City’s primary play-caller, Reid and players have long said that he deserves an opportunity to become a head coach. They have credited him for his offensive insight, which just helped the Chiefs win another championship.
Backup quarterback Chad Henne, for instance, noted to The Athletic that Bieniemy was the one to point out to players on the eve of the Super Bowl that the Eagles had trouble stopping a type of fake motion that became integral to Kansas City’s second-half comeback. According to Henne, Bieniemy showed the team clips from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ October game against the Eagles and how the Jaguars were able to score with a receiver faking a jet motion, stopping and reversing his route to become wide open in the end zone.
The Chiefs ran a similar concept on two touchdown plays.
“Eric Bieniemy has been tremendous for us and I think tremendous for the National Football League,’’ Reid told reporters Monday. “I’m hoping he has an opportunity to go somewhere and do his thing where he can run the show and be Eric Bieniemy.’’
That show now comes to Washington, which hasn’t fielded an above-average — or even average — offense since Kirk Cousins was under center in 2017.
Joining the Commanders, though, comes with risk. Next season figures to be a pivotal campaign for Rivera, who has missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and hasn’t finished a season above .500 since arriving in 2020. The Commanders also face uncertainty as owner Dan Snyder explores a sale of the team — and Rivera acknowledged last week that prospective coordinator candidates had questions about how the situation might affect their future.
Still, Rivera has maintained his team will conduct business as usual — and it became clear throughout the process that Bieniemy emerged as a strong candidate for the position. Rivera and Bieniemy have never worked directly with each other on staff, though both coached under Reid at various points. The two also overlapped in Philadelphia in 1999 — Bieniemy’s final as a player and Rivera’s first year under Reid.
A former running back, Bieniemy played 142 games during nine seasons in the NFL. He went into coaching in 2001, becoming the running backs coach at his alma mater of Colorado for two seasons. He has since spent time with UCLA, the Minnesota Vikings, Colorado again and Kansas City. Bieniemy spent a total of 10 years under Reid, spending the first five as Kansas City’s running backs coach.
Last week, Rivera indicated publicly that he was interested in Bieniemy — telling reporters that he heard the coordinator was interested in working with a defensive-minded head coach and was miffed that he had been unable to land a head coaching job.
“To listen to people’s reasoning, saying it’s because he’s under Andy’s shadow, I think is unfair,” Rivera said. “I mean, you have to be willing to give the guy the opportunity more than anything.”
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