Patrick Mahomes take on Eric Bieniemy cameo proves Chiefs must consider reunion

The Kansas City Chiefs received a bit of extra motivation before the AFC Championship Game. According to Andy Reid, former offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy spoke to the team ahead of their matchup with the Baltimore Ravens.

It has been a whirlwind winter for Bieniemy. He left the Chiefs to join Ron Rivera's staff with the Washington Commanders last season, but Rivera was recently relieved of his duties. The Commanders hired former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to take over as head coach. Bieniemy will not return. He is, shockingly, out of a job.

When asked about Bieniemy's pregame speech, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes said the entire locker room had "goosebumps." Maybe that is forecasting a potential reunion between Bieniemy and the team he won two Super Bowls with.

Eric Bieniemy gave Chiefs locker room 'goosebumps' before AFC Championship Game

Bieniemy led the NFL's No. 1 offense in three of six seasons as Chiefs OC. There is credit to go around, obviously, as Andy Ried, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill were all responsible in their own way. But, no matter how you slice it, Bieniemy understands how to engineer explosive plays and maximize the talent at his disposal. It's no coincidence that Kansas City's offense took a noticeable step back without Bieniemy on the sideline.

The Chiefs are just fine without him. They're back in the Super Bowl, and there's no reason to believe Matt Nagy is on the hot seat. Nagy was screwed in the regular season due to Kansas City's lack of supportive talent. Now that the offense has found its stride in the playoffs, however, one can hardly expect Reid to drastically change his staff.

Bieniemy shouldn't stay on the market for long. He deserves a shot at NFL head coaching duties, but all those opportunities have dried up. Even the open coordinator jobs around the league are starting to fill up. If Bieniemy can't land even a lateral move to another team, the Chiefs should eagerly explore adding Bieniemy in an offensive assistant role. Kansas City can label him as assistant head coach or hand him some other made-up role that allows Nagy to maintain play-calling duties. Just getting Bieniemy back in the building, with his corporate knowledge and winning pedigree, would be a huge win for the Chiefs.

Other NFL teams should be scrambling to make sure this doesn't happen. Bieniemy was buried by unfortunate circumstances in Washington. There's not much he could do about Sam Howell's proclivity for interceptions or the Commanders' inability to mount a run game. The Commanders were quietly 18th in passing yards per game. Nothing special, but Howell's arm talent was actually quite apparent — especially early in the season. Bieniemy did the best he could with the poor hand he was dealt.

His strong track record of success in Kansas City speaks for itself. Reid is the greatest offensive coach of a generation. We see Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan disciples getting hired left and right; Bieniemy and the Reid tree deserve similar treatment. If Bieniemy is forced to back to the Chiefs in a demoted role, the rest of the NFL will pay the price for that disrespect.