Eric Bieniemy is back in Kansas City for a second stint running Andy Reid's offense, but he has spent the opening weeks of training camp roughly a thousand miles from the team's camp in St. Joseph.
He is home in Northern Virginia with his wife, Mia, who is recovering after being shot at the couple's home late last month. Police arrested the Bieniemys' 27-year-old son, Elijah, and charged him in connection with the shooting, and he's currently being held without bond.
The situation is about as heavy as it gets for a coaching staff, and the Chiefs have handled it the way you would hope. There is no timeline for Bieniemy's return, and Reid has made clear the football will wait as long as it needs to. Pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier has stepped in to run the offensive install in Bieniemy's absence.
What has stood out over the last week is how Bieniemy, even from Virginia, has found a way to stay connected to the staff and team. The Chiefs set him up with a live feed of practice so he can watch the offense work through camp in real time, and players say he is not just watching. He is coaching.
"He's still watching," running back Kenneth Walker told local reporters at KCTV 5 after Tuesday's padded practice in St. Joseph. "He'll be watching, you know, anything we mess up on, he'll critique it and everything and make sure we're still on point with everything."
Walker added that the offense has gotten face time with Bieniemy on Zoom, and that he has sat in on some of the position and unit meetings remotely. For a room with some that are learning a coordinator's language for the first time, that certainly matters.
The Athletic also shared the live feed has also lead to calls during practice to GM Brett Veach, where Bieniemy had him hand the phone to Andy Reid to do things like pass a quick coaching point along to rookie running back Emmett Johnson.
Bleymaier said the football conversations have quietly become a source of normalcy for the staff during a very challenging stretch.
"It was great to hear from him," Bleymaier has shared. "Just on a personal standpoint, you were just so devastated for him. He's been reaching out more and more lately with some of the football stuff. So that's kind of brought a little bit of sense of normalcy back to our routine, just hearing him and his thoughts on the football."
Reid shared this week that Mia is out of the ICU and continuing to make progress.
The football backdrop here is that Bieniemy is reuniting with Reid and Patrick Mahomes after three seasons away. He ran the Chiefs offense from 2018 to 2022, winning Super Bowls LIV and LVII, before leaving to become the Commanders assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2023. He spent 2024 as UCLA's offensive coordinator and 2025 as the Bears' running backs coach under Ben Johnson before Kansas City brought him back this offseason.
For now, the offense keeps installing in St. Joseph, Bleymaier keeps steering the room, and Bieniemy keeps coaching from the only place he should be right now, which is next to his wife. There is no timeline, and frankly there does not need to be one as Mia continues her recovery.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.