‘It’s gonna be hell’ — Kansas City Chiefs know exactly what to expect from Eric Bieniemy after preseason Week 1’s penalty fiesta
Penalties were a problem for the Kansas City Chiefs in preseason Week 1, and the entire team knows it. They also know what’s in store for them during the final week of training camp practices.
The Kansas City Chiefs were one of the most penalized teams in the NFL’s regular season in 2025. They had 119 total penalties, good for seventh-most in the league. 59 of those penalties came on the offensive side of the ball, good for the ninth-most in the NFL.
If you were looking for a sign that things had changed, burn the tape of preseason Week 1’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The Chiefs had 12 penalties totaling 83 yards. 11 of those penalties came on the offensive side of the ball. Five were pre-snap penalties: false starts on the offensive line. Four of them were offensive holding penalties on linemen. Generally, an ugly day for Andy Heck’s O-Line unit.
With four training camp practices left, players already know exactly what to expect when they return to St. Joseph, Missouri. They’ll be hearing about it in the meeting room and on the practice field from Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy.
“Yeah, It’s gonna be hell,” Brashard Smith said after the game. “For sure, but we’ve got to clean those up. We’ll be good, for sure. Offense will be real clean.”
Chiefs know they need to clean up the penalties after preseason Week 1
Smith wasn’t the only player well aware of the penalty trouble in preseason Week 1. Chiefs WR Cyrus Allen and RB Emmett Johnson, who both had solid games, understood this as well. Speaking directly after the game, Chiefs HC Andy Reid addressed the penalty issue.
“Good to get a preseason game under our belt, being able to play against somebody else,” Reid said. “There was some good things, there are some things we got to clean up. Obviously, with the penalties, probably the number one thing that needs cleaned up, but we were able to get a good look at some of our young guys, and I thought there was some real production there, on both sides of the ball from the young guys.”
Now, high penalty counts are pretty common in the preseason. The Chiefs were one of six NFL clubs in the double digits. You’ve got a lot of reserve players, referees knocking off rust, and typically an emphasis on specific rules. One saving grace that fans can cling to here is that the vast majority of the penalties on offense came from players deep on the depth chart. Jalen Royals had a penalty that upended the first drive from Justin Fields. Ethan Driskell had the penalty on the following drive.
That said, Coach Reid, Coach Bieniemy, and Coach Heck are certainly going to harp on the penalties this week at practice. They’ll be expecting a much cleaner performance on the offensive side of the ball in preseason Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
