What might an Eric Bieniemy offense look like in Washington?

The Commanders are supposedly waiting to interview Eric Bieniemy after the Super Bowl, but what can they expect if they hire him?

The long wait for the Washington Commanders to fill their vacant offensive coordinator position continues into its fourth week. The reason for the delay is believed to be that the Commanders are waiting to be allowed to interview Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who is due to coach in the Super Bowl next weekend. Bieniemy has been linked to the job since Scott Turner was fired and rumors have been doing the rounds that he is the Commanders top target despite having to wait for the Chiefs season to finish to be allowed to interview him.

Knowing exactly what Bieniemy would bring to Washington is tough to ascertain because it’s unclear exactly how much input he has in the current Chiefs offense. As offensive coordinator, he clearly will have a significant input, but head coach Andy Reid is one of the best offensive minds ever to grace the NFL and is believed to still be the one calling the plays. They also have the best quarterback in the NFL in Patrick Mahomes, so there would be an adjustment from working with an elite quarterback to going to such an uncertain quarterback situation in Washington. 

However, the same can be said for a lot of the candidates the Commanders have interviewed thus far. So I figured I’d take a look at some All-22 from the Chiefs to get an idea of some common themes that Bieniemy would likely look to bring to Washington if hired.

Something that stands out immediately about the Chiefs offense isn’t necessarily that they call anything overly special that nobody else in the league calls. It’s more that they are so detailed in their play designs and know exactly when to call them in order to give their players the best possible chances to succeed. Let’s take a few run-pass option plays (RPOs) as an example.

This clip has two examples of RPOs from the Chiefs this season. The first play of the clip is an RPO against the 49ers, one of the best defenses in the league this season. The RPO is a relatively simple one that you see from just about every team, it’s a zone run combined with a bubble screen on the back side. However, the Chiefs design it perfectly and call it in the right spot. They send a tight end in motion across the formation to the left. This takes linebacker Fred Warner, one of the best linebackers in the NFL, out of the box as he follows the motion outside. 

With Warner out of the box, not only do the 49ers lose one of their best run defenders, they lose a numbers game. The 49ers are left with five defenders in the box against the Chiefs five offensive lineman, leaving nobody free to account for the running back. The safety can work down and join in on the fit, but he’s working from deep and every team in the league would prefer running at a safety over running at Warner. The read is simple for Mahomes, who hands the ball off against such a favorable run look. The running back gets to the edge and the safety misses the tackle, leading to a touchdown.

The second play of the clip is a very similar call, a bubble screen on the back side of a zone run. This time though, the Chiefs are closer to the goal line, so the Chargers are more committed to defending the run. With so many more bodies in the box, Mahomes pulls the ball and throws his bubble screen. In theory, the Chargers have three defenders over the three receivers executing the bubble screen, but one of those three defenders is a safety sitting about five yards off the line of scrimmage. With the Chiefs being so close to the end zone, they only need to get a block on the two closest defenders to give tight end Travis Kelce enough time to get into the end zone. They make those two key blocks and the safety can’t adjust in time to prevent Kelce from scoring.

It’s very rare to see a bad design or a poorly timed call from the Chiefs. They do an excellent job, especially on RPOs, of giving their players the most favorable looks for the play that is called. The level of detail involved from first knowing how the defense likes to defend certain looks and situations to then being able to manipulate those situations to optimize the chances of success is incredible. No small detail is overlooked which means they can always give their players the best chance of success. This is evident in the screen game as well. 

On the face of things, this might appear like any old screen pass to the running back. But dive a little deeper into the details and you start to understand why the Chiefs are so good with the screen game and just getting good looks in general. First, the personnel group. On this play, the Chiefs work out of a 13 personnel group with one running back, three tight ends and one wide receiver. This forces the defense into a run-heavy personnel package, meaning more linebackers and defensive lineman and less defensive backs. Naturally, that puts the defense at a disadvantage in coverage. So when the Chiefs snap the ball and don’t instantly hand off, the Bengals are on the back foot and desperately drop back into coverage to try and stay on top of everything. 

From there, the Chiefs sell a fake four verticals concept, with the two tight ends to the right working down the field while the receivers to the left run a post-wheel combination to further try and confuse the defense. All of this, however, is just window dressing designed to get the defense looking away from the real intent of the play. The running back leaks out of the backfield and into the flat while the two guards and the center get out in front of him. At the point the running back catches the ball, the defensive line are all focused on the quarterback and the nearest coverage defender is nearly 15 yards away from him. That gives the offensive line plenty of time to get out in front and set up blocks, clearing a path for the back to pick up a big gain.

Understanding opposing defenses and their tendencies, along with excellent play design and calling those plays in the right spots give the Chiefs the best possible chance for success on almost every play. That is a common theme whenever studying the Chiefs offense. Another common theme is creativity and adjusting to trends. Reid has always been a creative offensive mind and hopefully some of that has rubbed off on Bieniemy over the last few years, but the Chiefs have also been excellent problem solvers. The Vic Fangio defense took over the league in recent seasons, with more and more teams opting to play two deep safeties and working out of quarters or similar defensive coverages, helping protect against deep shots and explosive plays. Last year, many people thought this was the way to slow down the Chiefs, but they have found creative ways to adapt.

One of the ways they’ve had most success attacking those styles of defenses is changing the numbers game. Those quarters coverage defenses are built around splitting the field in half and having one extra defender on each half. So if an offense has two receivers on one side of the field, the defense will look to respond with three defenders over those two receivers. If the offense has three receivers, the defense will have four defenders. Most offenses will typically have a two receiver and a three receiver side, but this year the Chiefs have leaned into using four receivers on the same side.

You can see in this clip that there are a number of times the Chiefs have done this. They have three receivers and the running back all align on the same side of the field, giving them four receivers to one side of the formation. Against this look, defenses will typically respond with a built-in adjustment. The cornerback on the single receiver side will lock on that receiver in pure man coverage, while the rest of the defense can slide across to the other side of the field to maintain their numbers advantage. This helps negate the four receiver side, but does leave a pure one-on-one match up on the back side. The Chiefs figured out this coverage rule and routinely attacked it. On these two plays they just attacked the one-on-one with a slant, but across the games I watched, they used a variety of individual routes depending on the matchup. In Washington, it would be easy to see how Terry McLaurin could take advantage of this type of look.

Another key part of the Chiefs offense is their ability to feature key players. Travis Kelce is one of the best players in the league and could go down as one of the best tight ends ever to play in the NFL when all is said and done. He’s Patrick Mahomes top target and yet despite opposing teams knowing his threat and spending huge amounts of time each week to try and prevent him from getting the ball, the Chiefs always find ways to feature him each week.

Some weeks they have to be more creative than others, but they always find a way to get the ball to Kelce. On the first play of this clip, the Chiefs use a really nice design with a tight bunch set and a scissors concept. Scissors concepts are typically run on the outside, with a receiver starting outside the numbers and breaking in towards the post while another receiver starts inside the numbers and breaks outside towards the corner. But here, they use a bunch set to bring both receivers tight to the formation. With everything more condensed inside, the scissors concept becomes almost more effective as the defenders get caught in traffic while the receivers cross over. Kelce runs a terrific route as he paces it perfectly before breaking inside over the middle. He’s wide open for an easy catch and a big gain.

On the second play of the clip, Kelce motions across the formation to run a sail route as part of a sail concept. As he motions across, the safety follows him, indicating it’s potentially man coverage. Kelce works into his route and spots the safety looking to attach to him, so at the top of his route he sells a strong fake inside, similar to the break inside that we saw in the first play of this clip. The safety bites and Kelce suddenly breaks to the outside into lots of space. Mahomes delivers a nice pass and Kelce again has a big gain.

On a similar note, the Chiefs also do an excellent job adapting the offense to fit the skillset of the quarterback. Now Mahomes has an extraordinary skillset that means he can do a lot of things. He’s developed into a quarterback that can win purely from the pocket, but also has the ability to go off-script and create his own magic. His mobility allows him to scramble around and make plays, and the Chiefs will lean into that, rather than try and limit it.

This type of play can be seen routinely throughout the season. Every so often, the Chiefs will lean into Mahomes’ mobility by having him roll out to one side of the field, cutting the field in half, and use a moving pocket. They typically like to do this with some form of smash concept, with a receiver working to the flat to occupy a defender while an inside receiver breaks to the corner. Mahomes can then read the depth of the outside defender and either throw deep or dump off shallow for an easy completion. There are a number of examples of this all from the same game, but it occurs regularly throughout the season. 

This type of play makes use of Mahomes mobility, makes things easier for him by splitting the field in half and giving him an easy read, and helps out the offensive line at the same time. But they also provide a platform for Mahomes to go off-script and be special.

This play comes from the AFC Championship game against the Bengals last week. It’s called on fourth and one in the red zone and is another example of Mahomes being allowed to roll out and make use of his unique skillset. As he rolls out to his right, he likely has the option in the flat for a first down, but being Mahomes, he senses the potential for more than just a first down. He spots Travis Kelce running free towards the end zone, but he knows Kelce’s route will have him break outside towards the defender trailing behind him. So Mahomes pulls up and waits for Kelce to make eye contact with him. Once those two connect, Mahomes knows he can lob the ball up and trust Kelce to go make a play. Kelce repays that trust by boxing out the defender and going up to make the grab for a touchdown.

From the Washington Commanders’ perspective, it’s impossible to expect Bieniemy to be able to replicate the magic of Mahomes and his amazing connection with Kelce. Those two are special players and what they can do off-script comes from years of playing together, understanding each other’s games and trusting they’re on the same page. We all know by now that the Chiefs have an outstanding offense and a large part of that is down to Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid.

However, what Bieniemy might be able to replicate is the structure and framework that the Chiefs provide Mahomes and Kelce with. Given that Reid appears to be the one calling plays, despite his insistence that Bieniemy does, we don’t know how well he can call a game and set up plays the way Reid does. However, he has been involved in that offense for a number of years now and would hopefully have picked up a thing or two from Reid. 

The hope for Washington would be that Bieniemy could not only bring the strong play designs that the Chiefs have, but also the understanding of how and when to call those plays to optimize the chances for success like the Chiefs do now, as we saw with the RPOs and the screen game. They’d also be hoping to see Bieniemy being able to adapt the offense to fit the likes of Sam Howell while featuring key players like Terry McLaurin more. While Howell has the ability to go off-script and create plays himself, it’d be silly to expect him to become Patrick Mahomes. However, being able to provide a similar framework and structure might just set him up for the best possible chances of success.

The risk with Bieniemy is significant, because only those inside the Chiefs organization know exactly how much of the success of this offense is down to him and how much is on Mahomes and Reid. It could easily blow up in their face and lead to everyone being fired by a new owner this time next year. However, Ron Rivera will likely know that’s a strong possibility either way and the upside of that risk is that Bieniemy can at least replicate the structure that is in place with the Chiefs, leading to the best chance of success for the offense. It’s a high risk, high reward scenario but in a year that a new owner will likely clean house unless the team is extremely successful, it might be a risk Rivera is willing to take.