Eric Bieniemy’s Game-Changing Secrets: What He’s Really Bringing to the Chiefs’ Offense

Well, let me just say — the Kansas City Chiefs are making some serious moves to shake up their offensive playbook. Word on the street this Monday is that the Chiefs are bringing back none other than Eric Bieniemy to fill that crucial offensive coordinator role once again. After spending a year shaping the Chicago Bears’ running backs, Bieniemy is set to rejoin the Chiefs for the 2026 season, picking up right where he left off from 2018 to 2022 — a stretch that included two glorious Super Bowl victories alongside head coach Andy Reid. Now, this isn’t just a simple reunion; between his last run with KC and his recent gigs coaching the Washington Commanders and UCLA Bruins, Bieniemy has been stacking up fresh insights to inject into the Chiefs’ offense. It’s clear they’re hungry for a revamp, and with Bieniemy’s knack for meticulous attention to detail combined with his championship experience, the offense might just be on the verge of a serious renaissance. Ready to dive deeper? LEARN MORE

On Monday, reports surfaced of the Kansas City Chiefs’ plan to fill the vacant offensive coordinator position with a coach who has held that title in Kansas City before: Eric Bieniemy. After one year as the running backs coach with the Chicago Bears, he will return to the Chiefs for the 2026 season. Bieniemy will reprise the role he held from 2018 to 2022, when he won two Super Bowls as the right-hand man to head coach Andy Reid.

Between his departure from the Chiefs and working under Bears’ head coach Ben Johnson, Bieniemy coordinated the offenses of the Washington Commanders and the UCLA Bruins, where he was also the associate head coach. His return to an NFL sideline in 2025 put him in charge of Chicago’s backfield, the original position he held for the first five years of Reid’s tenure in Kansas City.

The Chiefs’ offense needs a fresh approach, and Bieniemy can blend the knowledge he has gained in his last few stops with the strict attention to detail that helped the Chiefs become champions in 2019 and 2022.

1. Under center offense

The Chiefs’ reliance on running plays out of shotgun formations in 2025 limited what they were able to do offensively, and these restrictions led to poor offensive play throughout the season.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Chiefs ranked 30th in the NFL in plays run from under center (196) during the 2025 season, but the Bears ranked fourth with 519 plays.

Ben Johnson has been one of the more innovative minds in the NFL since his days as an offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. His ability to blend a power running game with an innovative passing attack centered around play-action has been instrumental to the emergence of the Lions and now the Bears.

The Bears averaged 98.6 yards per game with under-center rush looks — the third-highest rate in the NFL — while the Chiefs averaged only 38.1 yards per game (27th ranked). When passing from these looks, the Bears ranked fifth in the NFL with 168.2 yards per game; that is what the Chiefs should look to adopt in 2026.

Bieniemy should help Reid bridge the gap between Kansas City’s current offense and the modern ideas that the Chiefs lacked in 2025..

2. Running back development

Bieniemy will return as the offensive coordinator, but he will likely play a key role in the development of the running backs on the Chiefs’ current roster, as well as any additions made through free agency or the draft.

It’s worth noting that Kansas City has yet to fill the position of running backs coach after according to a report on Tuesday evening.

The Chiefs should have a strong selection of top candidates for the job, but Bieniemy will naturally be involved in the development of the position he is most familiar.

In 2025, he coached the Bears’ backfield duo of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, and both players finished with career seasons. Swift ran for a career-high 1,087 yards and nine touchdowns, while Monangai — a seventh-round pick in the 2025 draft — rushed for 783 yards and five touchdowns. The ground game carried the Bears’ offense, and Bieniemy was at the forefront.

Currently, Kansas City has only two running backs on the roster: Brashard Smith and Dameon Pierce. Smith was seldom used as a rookie, but flashed when he did see the field. Pierce spent the first three seasons of his career with the Houston Texans, but things did not pan out after his rookie season in 2022. Pierce was picked up in November and spent the final half of the 2025 season on the Chiefs’ practice squad.

The organization will also be in a position to add a running back to the roster through free agency and the draft. Bieniemy should play a key role in developing the room and sculpt what the backfield will look like for the foreseeable future.

3. Accountability

Even in the modern era of analysis with in-depth statistical breakdowns as thorough as ever, some things still cannot be quantified, and one of these is accountability.

For the last two seasons, the Chiefs’ offense has floundered, and the dropoff was significant in 2025. At times, the offense looked like the productive machine it had been in the past, but all too often, a simple mistake derailed a drive or prevented the offense from gaining momentum.

During his first stint as the offensive coordinator, Bieniemy preached accountability, attention to detail, and above all else, executing the game plan.

Since he left following the 2022 season, the offense has been out of sorts. This was not all on the coaching staff, but the influx of penalties, turnovers, and poor execution played a part in the team parting ways with offensive coordinator Matt Nagy after three years.

Bieneimy will bring a no-nonsense, old-school mentality by hammering the offense on fundamentals, then holding all accountable to the championship standard that has been set in Kansas City.

The coaching will be needed in all phases of the offense. The Chiefs have a young group of skill players who have a long way to go to reach their potential, and the group will likely be larger at the start of training camp.

With Mahomes projected to return to play early on in 2026, it will be up to Reid and Bieniemy to hold the team around him accountable and hone in on the little things that can make or break championship seasons.