ASHBURN — As Brian Robinson went to run his pre-snap motion, Eric Bieniemy stopped the play mid-sequence. The running back’s footwork was not what it needed to be, and if there’s one thing that’s clear by now about Washington’s new offensive coordinator, “not what it needed to be” is unacceptable for someone like Eric Bieniemy.
“Do it again!” the coordinator barked.
And so when Robinson ran the motion a second time without a hitch, Bieniemy watched in approval — and then made the offense run the same play again. Just to drill it down.
“Simple [stuff],” Bieniemy yelled. “This is the simple [stuff] that’s going to win games!”
Bieniemy harping on Robinson isn’t unique to the running back, or any other player that Washington’s play-caller has coached. This spring, Bieniemy has gotten on quarterback Sam Howell for not chasing a defender after an interception. In Kansas City, Bieniemy’s last stop, no player was too big or too small for the offensive coordinator to jump on —including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.
In Washington, coach Ron Rivera and Co. have let Bieniemy be Bieniemy.
And that also applies to more than just his on-field enthusiasm.
From installing the offense to setting practice schedules, Bieniemy has come in and made a mark that might seem unconventional at first. But that’s by design. Upon giving Bieniemy the title of “assistant head coach” — something Bieniemy didn’t have in Kansas City — Rivera said he wanted the label to be a “working title.” That means giving Bieniemy room to develop the offense the way the coordinator wants it done.
The end result, Rivera says, may push Washington out of its “comfort zone.” But that’s what the coach wanted when he made the hire.
“I just appreciate him allowing me to have some input,” Bieniemy said of Rivera.”He’s given me a little flexibility to help and adjust the schedules because he feels that certain things we needed to change and I’m enjoying it because it allows me to have input. … I just want to make sure that I’m doing what is right for us when it’s all said and done with.”
“I wanted to give him the opportunity to stick to what I told (people) and that he was gonna be very involved in a lot of those things,” Rivera said.
Rivera said the added responsibilities weren’t just about trying to set Bieniemy up for a head coaching job in the NFL. Before arriving in Washington, Bieniemy’s inability to land such a role had become a focus given the league’s problems with hiring and promoting minority coaches. Bieniemy, who is Black, had been passed over for more than a dozen jobs despite winning two Super Bowls as a coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs. He became Washington’s coordinator in part to call plays on a full-time basis.
In terms of schedule, Washington has begun its two-hour practices this offseason at 10:30 a.m. — which is later in the morning than last year’s 8:30 a.m. start time. The change in structure, though, now represents how Bieniemy did things in Kansas City under coach Andy Reid. The main difference is that Washington’s installation starts early in the morning, so that the team can carry over concepts to the practice field.
Once there, no detail is too small if Bieniemy feels it needs to be corrected. On one play, he called out a tight end for not being in a 3-point stance at the line of scrimmage. Elsewhere, he got back on Robinson for not blocking for Howell. “Hey, B-Rob, if you don’t block him, who’s going to block him?” he yelled.
Bieniemy’s style of coaching isn’t necessarily out of the norm for Rivera’s staff — former tight ends coach Pete Hoener and former offensive line coach John Matsko could both be classified as … old school — but it stands in contrast to Scott Turner, Washington’s former offensive coordinator who rarely chided players in public.
Bieniemy’s attention to detail — in practice, at least — also appears to be different than his predecessor.
“As far as from an offensive coordinator perspective, so you know that was something we probably didn’t have last year from an OC perspective,” Robinson said. “So yes it is new.”
After Wednesday’s practice in which Bieniemy kept harping on him, Robinson seemed frustrated with how the session had gone. Following the session, too, Rivera could be seen calmly talking with the running back.
Robinson told reporters that having a “high intensity” coach wasn’t foreign to him, but acknowledged that it had “been a few years” since he had one. “I don’t see a problem with adjusting to EB,” Robinson said.
Bieniemy, in turn, said he just tries to “shoot ‘em straight.” No stone, he said, would be left unturned. But Bieniemy added that Robinson is “about a good of a kid as they come” and that the rusher’s frustration was related to his desire to be great.
“In order for us to be a great team, we got to make sure that we act as a team,” Bieniemy said. “And so sometimes things happen to whereas these are great learning lessons.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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