Sometimes certain pairings in life become so successful that they are forever tied at the hip in the minds of the masses. In sports, we see it all the time, no matter how the relationship ends. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will always be tied to one another just like Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, and the list goes on. We don’t usually get the reunion (if ever) until many years later, like we’ve seen recently with Jones and Johnson. One pairing that split up not too long ago that feels like they’re headed for a quick relaunch is the Kansas City Chiefs and Eric Bieienmy.
Maybe it sounds hasty or farfetched, but there isn’t a great sense of hope for Washington elevating Bieniemy to head coach to replace Ron Rivera. Bieniemy was brought in to improve the offense and Washington wasn’t horrible on that front, but there wasn’t a vast improvement, if any, over the previous year.
With Bieniemy in a state of limbo, it’s only natural we’d begin to hear rumors about a possible return to KC. This makes even more sense following the “down” year the Chiefs had finishing the regular season 11-6. Kansas City hadn’t won fewer than 12 games since Patrick Mahomes became the full-time starter in 2018. The year before that they managed 10 wins behind Alex Smith with Mahomes on the bench as a rookie.
After winning the team’s second Super Bowl last year, it was understandable why Bieniemy would want to get away from head coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs. Not because there were bad feelings, but because Bieniemy wanted to stand on his own. Although it wasn’t as a head coach, it is still puzzling seeing how every other coordinator, offense, or defense gets a shot after one or two successful campaigns without even winning a ring. It doesn’t matter either if they called plays because we’ve seen plenty of examples of that outside of Bieniemy.
Too much shade to go home?
Having the pieces in place is just as important as the coach laying out the chess board. The Commanders have some pieces on offense, but not like the Chiefs, and that’s even with them having what is considered a down year. There was talk early on of players taking issue with Bieienemy’s coaching methods. This was something LeSean McCoy highlighted upon Bieniemy’s exit from KC. That’s been one of the knocks on him for some time, the way he interacts with players.
While multiple former Chiefs came to Bieniemy’s defense, we saw in Washington what McCoy was talking about. Some Commanders players had a problem with the way Bieniemy talked to them on the field. Older generations might call players soft for this, but you can’t talk to everyone the same way. Some players will soak up that aggression and use it as fuel, while others may shut down altogether. Then there are those players who will fire right back at the coach.
Regardless of his quirks, Bieniemy feels like a Chief. They had such a great run over a five- or six-year span that it only feels right that Bieniemy ended up back in Kansas City after a lackluster stint in the nation’s capital. If the Commanders offer him the head coaching position, of course, he’s got to take it, but that doesn’t seem like it’ll be the case. The way it stacks up this year is, if it’s not in Washington, Bieniemy will probably be passed over once again.
Couple that with how the Chiefs have looked offensively (can’t blame everything on Taylor Swift) and even if he never calls plays, there’s just something that works with Bieniemy and KC. If the Chiefs suffer an early out in the playoffs you can guarantee talk of Bieniemy heading back to KC will begin to heat up.
