Eric Bieniemy. Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Former Chiefs RB downplays Eric Bieniemy's impact on team's offense

Former Kansas City Chiefs running back LeSean McCoy wants to see Eric Bieniemy succeed, but he is not quite ready to buy the hype on him as an offensive coordinator based on his personal experiences with the team. 

During an appearance on FS1 this week, McCoy said he does not know where Bieniemy's value is as an offensive coordinator because it was head coach Andy Reid designing the passing plays in Kansas City and correcting everybody in the film room.

McCoy spent the 2019 season as a member of the Chiefs, appearing in 13 games and starting nine of them.

Bieniemy has been a major topic of discussion in recent years during the head coach hiring cycles, especially as he keeps getting passed over for jobs. 

Following the Chiefs' Super Bowl win he left Kansas City and took the offensive coordinator job with the Washington Commanders. 

“I’ve been in the rooms where he’s coaching and he has nothing to do with the pass game at all," said McCoy. 

"When the plays are designed, that’s Andy Reid. When you talk about offensive coordinators, I can tell you what makes Brian Daboll with the Giants a very good coordinator. I can tell you about Andy Reid or Doug Pederson. But Eric Bieniemy, what makes him good? When we watch the film of practices and we correct the wide receivers, the running backs, the quarterbacks, he doesn’t talk in there. Andy Reid talks in there.”

McCoy went on to say that he wants Bieniemy to succeed because he is a Black coach and he wants to see Black coaches win, but based on his personal experience he is simply not sure what Bieniemy brings.

Trying to separate how much of the Chiefs' offense is Reid and how much of it is Bieniemy has been one of the subplots to his coaching career, and that does not even get into the variable that is having Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

If nothing else, we should get a pretty definitive answer on what Bieniemy brings during the 2023 season when he will presumably have a chance to have a full hands-on approach to the Commanders offense. If he manages to succeed there with what is currently an unsettled quarterback situation then nobody should be questioning his ability to design and build an offense. 

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