The Washington Commanders hope they'll soon become an offensive powerhouse like the Chiefs now that Kansas City's longtime offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy signed on as their offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Bieniemy joins the team after a very successful run with the Chiefs, including two Super Bowl wins in the last four years.
Bieniemy is going from a championship to a team that finished 8-8-1 last season, and he's bringing lots of experience and expertise to help improve his new offense. Commanders head coach Ron Rivera has high hopes for the team following Bieniemy's arrival and says the offense has the key weapons for him to utilize.
Sitting with CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones at the NFL combine Tuesday, Rivera said he's been studying tape of the Chiefs offense, and felt the Commanders could execute at a similar level.
"I started watching tape on [the Chiefs offense] ... and I kept thinking, 'we've got five guys on offense, five playmakers -- we can do those things,;" Rivera said.
Commanders head coach Ron Rivera explains what the offense can look like with Eric Bieniemy now at the helm pic.twitter.com/HE0yTATCrB
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) February 28, 2023
"We feel good about who our receiving corps is, we like our tight end position and we've got some dynamic backs. Now let's see if we can get the ball into their hands a lot quicker, a little sooner, in terms of the style of offense they were playing in Kansas City," the head coach said.
Rivera, of course, is talking about Washington's playmaking trio of Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel and Jahan Dotson at wide receiver. At running back, it carries two productive players in Antonio Gibson and Brian Robinson Jr. Tight end isn't nearly as strong, but starter Logan Thomas has been productive in the past.
Rivera gave some insight on how they will execute the running game and the passing game.
"The biggest thing more than anything else is you want balance on the offensive side. You want to be able to run the ball successfully, and if you are, continue to do that, and if not maybe you have to go some play action, maybe you have to go some drop backs," Rivera said.
He went through their ultimate goal for each game, which entails using the skill sets of their playmakers, getting the ball in those player's hands, score "as much as [they] can going into the fourth quarter then scoring again late to seal games. Sounds easy enough, but the execution is the hard part.
Last season, the Commanders ranked 23rd in completion percentage in the league (62.1 percent), 22nd in passing yards (3,783), 29th in rushing touchdowns (9)m the fifth most interceptions (16) and the seventh most sacks (48). With the addition of Bieniemy the Commanders will certainly have more of a chance and more likelihood of a successful season than in recent history.
