The Kansas City Chiefs have hired Eric Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator for 2026, a team source confirmed on Wednesday. Bieniemy will replace Matt Nagy, who has interviewed for head coach openings and at least one offensive coordinator job this offseason.
It’s a familiar fit for the Chiefs. Bieniemy, 56, previously spent five years as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator from 2018 to ’22. During that time, the team featured some of its most high-powered offenses with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and receiver Tyreek Hill playing at peak levels.
The team made three Super Bowl appearances during that period, winning two championships.
Bieniemy, who was the Chicago Bears’ running backs coach in 2025, couldn’t replicate the same type of success in offensive coordinator stints after leaving K.C. He was named OC and associate head coach with the Washington Commanders in 2023 but was not retained after a 4-13 season in which he served as the team’s primary play caller.
The following year, Bieniemy became offensive coordinator at UCLA, but he was fired after a 5-7 season; his team’s offense tied for 95th nationally in yards per play.
Bieniemy was hired as the Bears’ running backs coach in 2025, and that unit has thrived under his watch. D’Andre Swift surpassed 1,000 yards in the regular season, while seventh-round rookie Kyle Monangai has exceeded expectations with 783 rushing yards and a 4.6 yards-per-carry average.
The Chiefs will likely lean into Bieniemy’s tendency to be a disciplinarian after a 6-11 season.
Mahomes seemed to reference that the team needed adjustments in that area when speaking on Jan. 15 about what he hoped to see in the team’s next offensive coordinator.
“For me, I just want someone that loves football, that cares about football, that wants to give everything they can to win, to hold people accountable and then to bring new ideas every single day,” Mahomes said. “I think that’s something that we have to continue to do if you want to continue to be great in this league, is you have to continue to evolve and get better and better. And that’s something that we’ll try to do here. And I want to get back to that winning culture of being accountable to each other and going out there and playing great football every single day — practice or game.”
Bieniemy has never been afraid to make his voice heard in practices or games. Previously, his bark of, “Finish! Finish!” was one of the consistent sounds of Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph, Mo., as he demanded the team’s running backs complete each drill by running into the end zone even if it meant jogging 50 (or more) extra yards to do so.
The Chiefs offense, under Nagy, experienced team success but also had bouts of inconsistency. That was the case in 2025, as the Chiefs offense ranked top five in most advanced statistical measures through Week 12 before injuries to both offensive tackles (and eventually Mahomes) started a downward spiral at the end of the season.
Kansas City still made the Super Bowl in two of the last three seasons with Nagy coordinating the offense, including a win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 58.
The Chiefs’ Andy Reid first hired Bieniemy as running backs coach in 2013. He was elevated to offensive coordinator in 2018 while also replacing Nagy then; Nagy was hired that offseason as Bears head coach.
Reid remains the primary play caller in the Chiefs offense, delivering a shortened version of the play each snap before his offensive coordinator relays the entire string of words to the quarterback. The operation allows Reid to remain in charge of the team’s offense while freeing himself from getting bogged down on game days, when in-the-moment decisions could require his attention as well.
Bieniemy inherits a Chiefs offense looking to improve its run-game explosiveness next season. K.C. had just one 20-plus-yard carry from a back all season, with Reid highlighting that as an area that needed enhancing.
“Somewhere, you’d like to have a few bigger plays in that area,” Reid said after the season. “Not 3 to 4 yards. Every once in a while, you need to hit on a few.”
The Chiefs finished 13th in expected points added per drive and 15th in points per drive in 2025. K.C. was 31st in both of those categories over the final three weeks while playing without Mahomes, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 15.
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