Ever since the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl 38-35 over the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL world has had one question…
Where will former Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy wind up?
Considering his success with the Chiefs offense since becoming offensive coordinator in 2018, many thought Bieniemy would easily land a head coaching job somewhere in the league.
However, that wasn’t the case, and with another championship season under his belt as a coordinator, he went without being offered a head coaching position. However, he has just been hired by the Washington Commanders as their new offensive coordinator, where he’ll have full control of the offense for the first time in his career.
The conversation around why Bieniemy hasn’t been able to get a chance to be a head coach has primarily focused on race, and even Skip Bayless recently said white owners don’t want to hire black coaches.
With that being said, one former NFL star doesn’t believe the hottest coordinator in the NFL right now is going to live up to the hype in Washington, and it’s no other than former Eagles and Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy.
And it has nothing to do with color.
The 34-year-old made an appearance on FOX’s Speak For Yourself show alongside Emmanuel Acho, where he admitted that he doesn’t believe the future is as bright as everybody thinks it is for Bieniemy in D.C.
He said:
“I hope he doesn’t, but I think he will. What’s his value? What makes him a good offensive coordinator? See the problem is, a lot of these people who go on social media, ‘Oh, he should be the guy for the job,’ They haven’t played there, they’re not in the locker room.
I’ve been in the rooms where he’s coaching. He has nothing to do with the passing game at all. The plays are designed, that’s Andy Reid. When you’re talking about offensive coordinators, I can tell you what makes Brian Daboll with the Giants a very good head coach. I can tell you what Andy Reid or Doug Pederson, but when I ask about Eric Bieniemy, what makes him good?”
Shady basically says that Bieniemy has nothing to do with the coaching, play calling, or management of the offense”
“When we watch the film of practices and we correct the WRs, the RBs, the QBs, he doesn’t talk in there, Andy Reid talks in there. He may say things to the running backs because he’s an ex-running backs coach. I get that. But he has no real responsibility.
Now you go from the Chiefs, where you can hide behind Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Now, you can go to Washington where you’ve got to call plays, you’ve got to run the meetings, you’ve got to run the installs.”
He also added:
“The last issue I have with him. One of the things that makes Andy Reid so great… adapting to the players. Bieniemy, my first practice, I couldn’t believe it. He’s dog cussing the players and not just the regular players, Kelce other players.”
To be fair, McCoy is rooting for Bieniemy being successful, but just doesn’t see it happening.
“I’m rooting for him because he’s a black coach and I love to see a black coaches win. Also he’s a running back coach and running back coaches never get a chance to be offensive coordinators, so if I have to do my job and be honest, where is true value at?”
He also adds that it has nothing to with race:
“Absolutely not. People want to win, the color thing I get it, there should definitely be more black coaches, I definitely believe that. But if you look at the Chiefs, they want to win. It has nothing to do with the color barrier at all.”
Just from an outsiders perspective, you have to believe that Bieniemy played a massive role in the Chiefs’ offensive success over the past four years, especially this year, when quarterback Patrick Mahomes may have been surrounded with the least amount of talent in his career at Kansas City on paper.
But of course, McCoy also played under Bieniemy for a season back in 2019, so he’s gotten to witness everything that goes on behind the scenes first hand.
Not to mention, Washington has been a coaching graveyard in recent seasons.
I guess we’ll just have to wait for next season to see how right or wrong McCoy really is.
