Andy Reid confirms suspicions about whether new OC Eric Bieniemy will call Kansas City Chiefs’ plays in 2026
Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid spoke about who will call the plays on offense during the 2026 NFL season.
Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid has always been an offensive play-caller for as long as he’s been an NFL head coach, and that doesn’t seem to be changing with his latest offensive coordinator hire.
The Chiefs officially hired Eric Bieniemy last week, welcoming him back to the franchise as offensive coordinator after three years away from the club. Coach Reid is fired up to have Bieniemy back in the fold for several reasons. However, Coach Bieniemy’s return also raises some questions. What will look different this time around in Kansas City? One of the reasons Bieniemy left in the first place was to gain experience as an offensive play-caller, which he received under Ron Rivera in Washington. Would Reid possibly give something like that up to get Bieniemy back into the fold? Not so fast.
Andy Reid won’t turn play-calling duties over to new Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, at least not entirely
Speaking to media members on Monday afternoon, Andy Reid was asked by Chiefs Digest’s Matt Derrick about the offensive play-calling situation now that Bieniemy has returned. He confirmed that play-calling will remain his lane, but that it’s also very much a joint effort amongst the entire coaching staff.
“So listen, I mean, I still enjoy calling plays,” Reid said. “But what I do is I also, I’m not afraid to delegate and get opinions from people, and then even in certain situations, letting them go ahead and call things in different areas. So, we do this jointly. I keep it open, and I’ve felt that that’s the best way. I want guys that contribute. I want them to work hard, be experts in their area, and cumulatively in all areas. I’ve always mixed and matched there, and it’s seemed to have been fairly productive.”
Offensive play-calling under Coach Reid has been a collaborative process in Kansas City dating back to the days when Doug Pederson was the offensive coordinator. Really, it’s something he took away from his time in Green Bay under Mike Holmgren. Each play in the playbook will have a one-word keyword that Reid relays to the offensive coordinator. The offensive coordinator then relays the full play call associated with the keyword to the quarterback, who calls it out to his teammates in the huddle. Keep in mind that all of this transpires over about 20 seconds during the 40-second offensive play clock.
While Reid still has 51% of the say on what the team will do on a given down or distance, different coaches have different levels of input at different times. During Eric Bieniemy’s former stint as offensive coordinator, for instance, his expertise in the running game was something that Coach Reid leaned on heavily. Other coaches who may be in charge of different aspects of weekly game-planning, such as red zone, third down, fourth down, and so on, will be asked to weigh in on those particular situations during the game so they can get the right play at the right time. Other times, coaches will notice tendencies or opportunities where a given play could be successful against an opponent, and they’ll have opportunities to weigh in.
So, it’s disingenuous in a way to just say, “No, Eric Bieniemy won’t call plays.” He’s going to have some level of ownership over getting the playcall into Mahomes with efficiency and effectiveness, and that’s very important in its own right. He’ll also have input on the playcall in specific moments, like he did when Patrick Mahomes asked him if they had time to run Wasp in Super Bowl LIV.
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