As is customary with head coach hiring, Dan Quinn brought in a new coaching staff to complement him, ousting Washington Commanders’ incumbent offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Eric Bieniemy in the process. The unexpected element is that Bieniemy was regarded a future head coach just a year ago, after interviewing for 15 positions. Now that he needs another job, what went wrong during his time with the Commanders?
“It was a significant turn for Bieniemy, who arrived a year ago with great fanfare,” Nicki Jhabvala and Sam Fortier of the Washington Post reported. After inheriting a failing offence, the team did not put much effort into fixing the offensive line. Still, Bieniemy appeared uninterested in tailoring his offensive strategy to the talents he now possessed.
“In Bieniemy’s lone season in Washington, the Commanders’ offence was inconsistent and unbalanced, and quarterback Sam Howell regressed as the season went on,” according to the Washington Post.
Rather than relying on the Commanders’ run game, which averaged 4.4 yards per carry (seventh best in the NFL), Bieniemy attempted to force Howell to become Patrick Mahomes by putting the first-year passer under pressure, as evidenced by Washington’s 53 consecutive passing attempts against the Chicago Bears, which resulted in 11 hits and five sacks. According to the Washington Post, the Commanders ended up tied for 23rd in offensive scoring, 24th in third-down effectiveness, and 30th in rush rate (38.2 percent) when the clock or scoreboard did not dictate whether to run or pass. Logan Thomas and Terry McLaurin, for example, have said that they struggled during the season. McLaurin described one of his games as a cardio exercise after not receiving the attention one would expect from a good receiver.
“In the locker room, signs of frustration were evident throughout the season,” the Washington Post noted. “Players, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal team dynamics, described Bieniemy as a hard-working coach who hamstrung his own efforts with poor communication, stubborn play-calling and a disregard for player feedback.” According to the narrative, some players were concerned about how hard Bieienemy ran his sessions, which left them exhausted before games and made them more prone to injury. With his enhanced role in Washington, he didn’t come across as a player coach, so it’s no surprise that only the Commanders interviewed him for head coaching this year.
“Bieniemy’s title of assistant head coach gave him greater authority than most coordinators, allowing him to script practices and alter players’ schedules during the week,” according to a report in the Washington Post. With that role, he shared equal guilt for the team’s shortcomings as sacked head coach Ron Rivera.
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