KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Head coach Andy Reid move swiftly to fill the role of offensive coordinator vacated by Matt Nagy leaving for the Chicago Bears, promoting running backs coach Eric Bieniemy to the role.
Sept. 17, 2015; Kansas City, MO: Chiefs coach Andy Reid (right) and running back coach Eric Bieniemy (left) on the sidelines against the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium. (Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal)
“I’m a big fan of his,” Reid said last week of Bieniemy. “I’ve got good coaches and I’ve said before I think he’s a phenomenal football coach.”
Bieniemy spent the last five seasons as running backs coach for the Chiefs, earning acclaim from players and his fellow coaches for as a motivator and a teacher. Fullback Anthony Sherman recently called Sherman the best coach he’s had in his career.
“He gets you so ready to play that you could play any position in the room and have no worry,” Sherman said. “He trusts us all and we just know we’re going go out there and execute. We trust him and he trusts us.”
Nagy his predecessor as the club’s offensive coordinator, also praised Bieniemy as an instructor.
“Mentally with Eric, he prepares those guys better than anybody,” Nagy said. “There’s never a stone unturned. The timing that we have in the classroom, he uses every minute up to the second with these guys.”
Bieniemy came to fame as an All-American running back for the Colorado Buffaloes and was a second-round pick in 1991 for the San Diego Chargers. He spent nine seasons in the NFL as a running back and kick returner, tallying 4,709 all-purpose yards during stints with the Chargers, Cincinnati and Philadelphia. He spent his last season in the league with the Eagles in 1999. That was Reid’s first year as head coach in Philadelphia.
The 48-year-old Bieniemy joined the coaching ranks in 2001 in charge of running backs at his alma mater. He moved to the same role at UCLA from 2003 to 2005 before his first stint in the NFL Bieniemy coached running backs for the Minnesota Vikings from 2006 to 2010 for head coach Brad Childress, currently Kansas City’s assistant head coach.
Bieniemy served two seasons as offensive coordinator for the Colorado Buffaloes in 2011-12 before joining Reid’s first staff in Kansas City.
The team plans to formally introduce Bieniemy as offensive coordinator during a conference call on Wednesday.
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Matt Derrick is the lead beat writer for ChiefsDigest.com. Use the contact page to reach him or find him on Twitter: @MattDerrick.
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