The Eric Bieniemy situation is fine grist for anyone trying to make what they want out of it, but the outcome will be entirely obvious to anyone who has watched a version of this show before.
The new Commanders offensive coordinator is notably intense. So much so that head coach Ron Rivera told reporters Tuesday that other players had come to him and complained. Rivera then made a comparison between Bieniemy and Jack Del Rio, Washington’s defensive coordinator, noting that Del Rio tends to adapt his style to the players, while Bieniemy wants his personal style to be embraced. By Wednesday morning, Rivera was out in front of reporters reading a prepared statement tucked behind his black cap to “clarify” what he meant and to “own” the miniature controversy it created. Trust me, there is no better way to illustrate that all is well than reading the public relations equivalent of a hostage note.
Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman, former players of Bieniemy’s from his time with the Chiefs, also weighed in on social media backing the way their former OC operates.
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I see Rivera getting some of the blame, because he tends to misspeak from time to time. There was the whole deal where he buried Carson Wentz and then blamed reporters for it. He’s had more press conference walk-offs than Don King. But we also need to have some degree of sympathy for the coach, who has real dad-trying-his-best energy in Washington after years of coaching the notoriously unpredictable Cam Newton in Carolina. Sometimes he’s going to flip out. It’s not always going to make sense. He’ll probably apologize, and, yes, everyone still gets ice cream after dinner. He’s tired. Give him a break.
The real problem is how the discussion takes form after it leaves the podium, when we turn Bieniemy’s personal style—which includes a more confrontational approach—into an all-or-nothing indictment on toughness. There have already been several think pieces devoted to this idea that Washington needed to be hardened after years of mediocrity, and, of course, the players would have some resistance to someone who tells it like it is. Think of this as the antithesis of the Sean Payton approach in Denver, where a coach has chosen to blame a visibly lackluster product on an outgoing coach.
Of course, we have learned over time that toughness has nothing to do with one’s ability to be screamed at. And, indeed, there’s no chance any of the 90 players on Washington’s roster have made it to the NFL without some wannabe General Patton screaming in their ear at some level of football. These players have all willingly accepted a politically cutthroat and emotionless career path that could end at any second. Their salaries are as reliable as a local weatherperson’s. On any given play, everything they worked for could be taken away.
Agreeing to those parameters for an outside chance of having a five- to seven-year career in the NFL is incredibly tough. Let’s get that out of the way and address reality: Bieniemy prefers to act this way and also has his own nine-year NFL career to draw on.
What matters is how Bieniemy backs up his stylistic preferences. While the NFL is quickly ridding itself of the yellers and screamers—remember Joe Judge forcing his players in New York to run sprints after a practice fight?—that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for one. It just means that, in addition to this style, Bieniemy needs to design an offense that wins games and puts players in the best position to succeed to avoid having to forcibly change himself. With success inevitably comes more perspective and a gentler view of how Bieniemy works with his players. If the Commanders improve substantially on offense despite a pretty pronounced lack of talent, we will fill columns like this lionizing toughness. We will wonder where all the tough guys have gone. Maybe we’ll all start, as the Commanders are putting it, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
If the Commanders’ offense is a disaster, we will circle back to this moment and wonder how no one else saw it coming.
That is the true unforced error of the past week in Washington. There is now a reference point by which we can say I told you so. There is also, baked in there, an incredible opportunity for Bieniemy to shut a lot of people up. But that prospect just seems more daunting now.
