ASHBURN, Va. — Eric Bieniemy knew he was almost certainly leaving the Kansas City Chiefs before they won a second Super Bowl in four years.

After interviewing 16 times for 15 NFL head coaching jobs in past years, he also knew this time he probably was not getting another look to run a team. So, the longtime successful Chiefs’ offensive coordinator kept an eye out for his next challenge.

That turned out to be joining the Washington Commanders as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, a gig under Ron Rivera that should give Bieniemy the chance to show what he can do out of the shadow of Andy Reid and two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes.

Bieniemy is ready – “fired up,” as he said multiple times at his introductory news conference Thursday – to make Washington’s offense his own, call plays and shut out all the noise about why he isn’t an NFL coach in his own right.

“Being a head coach right now, it hasn’t happened,” Bieniemy said. “It’s not anything that’s going to impact me moving forward because the only thing I need to be concerned with is what’s important today. Today I got to be the best person that I can be. I got to be the best coach that I can be.”

Bieniemy, who turns 54 during training camp in August, became the best candidate out of more than a half-dozen interviews after Rivera went through the first week of interviews wanting to find someone quickly and started watching the playoffs instead. He saw what the Chiefs could do on offense and envisioned some of those characteristics with the Commanders, who relied on a stout defense to get to 8-8-1 last season.

“We’ve got our guy,” Rivera said proudly in introducing Bieniemy. “We really, truly feel we found the right guy. We found the guy that we believe can step up and be the guy that we’re looking for.”

Rivera also found a coach he was fortunate to scoop up as an assistant after Bieniemy was previously interviewed to coach the Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles – and the New York Jets twice.

As has been well publicized, Bieniemy did not get any of those jobs. But Rivera sees a little of his path in his new play-caller after being a linebacker-turned defensive coordinator under a defensive coach, who had to go work for someone on the other side of the ball to get a head job.

“I interviewed eight, nine times before I got my opportunity. And I know it’s the same thing for him: Eventually he’s going to get that opportunity,” Rivera said, also citing Sean McDermott’s path from a coordinator under Reid to coach of the Buffalo Bills.

“Maybe this’ll be a good thing for Eric, which I’m hoping. We’re going to live in the now, and that’s about winning football games.”

Bieniemy, who was running the Chiefs’ offense during their run of five consecutive AFC championship game appearances with three trips to the Super Bowl, said he was only worried about two letters of the alphabet: “a W or an L.”

There have been far more losses than wins for Washington over the past couple of decades compared to Kansas City, and yet he was still ready to leave in what could be the middle of a modern day dynasty.

“One thing in this profession you learn is comfort is the enemy of progress,” Bieniemy said. “I don’t like being comfortable, so I’m about accepting challenges and moving forward. This presents a challenge to me.”

Bieniemy inherits an offense that ranked 20th in the league last season and a second-year quarterback in Sam Howell, who has one game of pro experience and trails Mahomes by 228 NFL touchdown passes.

“I’m just super excited to have (Bieniemy) here,” said Howell, the 2022 fifth-round pick out of North Carolina who goes into offseason workouts as the starter. “Obviously he came from an organization with Patrick Mahomes, so they had a lot of success together. Hopefully we can kind of bring some of that over here.”

BROWNS:  Ray “Bubba” Ventrone has been hired as Cleveland’s special teams coordinator, returning to the Browns as a coach after playing for the team.

Ventrone replaces Mike Priefer, who was fired earlier this week after four seasons filled with inconsistency by his units. Ventrone had been the special teams coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts since 2018.

Ventrone interviewed with Cleveland Coach Kevin Stefanski on Wednesday, as did New York Jets assistant special teams coach Leon Washington and New York Giants assistant coach Anthony Blevins.

Ventrone will also have assistant head coach added to his title in Cleveland, meaning he would fill in for Stefanski if necessary. That happened to the Browns in the 2020 playoffs, when Stefanski contracted COVID-19 and Priefer led Cleveland to a wild-card playoff win at Pittsburgh.

The 40-year-old Ventrone will counted on to upgrade Cleveland’s special teams, which rarely had a positive impact under Priefer. Ventrone was a special teams star with the Browns from 2009-12 after playing two seasons with New England. He retired as a player following the 2014 season with San Francisco.

JAGUARS: The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Nick Holz as passing game coordinator, landing a quick replacement for Jim Bob Cooter.

Cooter left the Jaguars last week to become offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts and new coach Shane Steichen.

Holz joins Jacksonville after spending last season as UNLV’s offensive coordinator. Holz spent the previous decade (2012-21) in a variety of roles with the Las Vegas Raiders, working his way up from quality control coach to assistant receivers coach.

BRONCOS: A person with knowledge of the hiring tells The Associated Press that Sean Payton is bringing back ex-Broncos head coach Vance Joseph to Denver to serve as his defensive coordinator.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the hiring hadn’t been announced by the team.

Two other former NFL head coaches – Rex Ryan and Matt Patricia – also interviewed for the job in recent days.

Joseph coached the Broncos from 2017-18, compiling an 11-21 record before being replaced by Vic Fangio. He spent the past four seasons as the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive coordinator. Joseph also interviewed for Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator vacancy this week after Jonathan Gannon left to serve as the Cardinals head coach following the Super Bowl.

RAMS: Linebacker Bobby Wagner is parting ways with the Los Angeles Rams after just one season, a person familiar with the decision said Thursday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Wagner’s release won’t be official until after the start of the new league year next month.

The 32-year-old Wagner was outstanding in his only season with his hometown Rams, who signed him as a free agent last March following a decade with the Seattle Seahawks.

Wagner started all 17 games at middle linebacker and made 140 tackles with a career-high six sacks and even two interceptions for the Rams. Wagner signed a five-year deal with $20 million guaranteed when he joined Los Angeles, but his release before June 1 will create $5 million in salary cap savings for the Rams, who are currently about $14 million over the cap.

CARDINALS: New Arizona Coach Jonathan Gannon has asked Drew Petzing to lead an offense that will eventually be built around franchise quarterback Kyler Murray. The problem is Murray is recovering from tearing the ACL in his right knee and probably won’t be available for at least the first few weeks next season.

This is the first offensive coordinator job for the 35-year-old Petzing, who spent the past three seasons with the Cleveland Browns and was the quarterbacks coach last season.

 

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