When you’ve interviewed for 17 NFL head-coaching jobs since 2019, you have a sense of how teams do things.
When you’re Eric Bieniemy, you file those ideas away in hopes of making yourself a better coach.
“The beauty of it is that everybody does it different,” Bieniemy, the Bears’ new running backs coach, said Thursday. “I think sometimes we can get stuck in the world [of], “Hey, my way is the best way.’ That’s not a very good thing to live by. You’ve got to make sure you’re keeping your horizons wide open — but on top of that, making sure you’re broadening your vision to not be afraid of trying different things, opening up your circles of people so you can help diversify your thought process.”
Bieniemy’s way of doing things is unique. He comes to Chicago with a reputation as an intense coach who won’t hesitate to scream his way through practice in order to motivate his players.
“If you’re putting uncharacteristic behavior on tape, yeah, I’m going to get after your ass on that,” he said. “But if you’re putting the right behavior on tape, I’m going to be your biggest fan.”
New head coach Ben Johnson said he expects Bieniemy to “coach the piss” out of the Bears’ running backs.
“I expect us to work hard. I expect us to play hard,” Bieniemy said. “These guys know because we’ve talked. I told them, ‘Hey, I’m old school. If you don’t work, we don’t eat.’ ”
Others around the league have told Johnson that Bieniemy is the best running backs coach in the NFL. He’s certainly the most qualified. In 25 years of coaching at the pro and college levels, he has served as offensive coordinator for the Chiefs, the Commanders, UCLA and his alma mater, Colorado. He coached running backs for five seasons in Kansas City before spending five years as the Chiefs’ coordinator, although head coach Andy Reid called the plays. He was Adrian Peterson’s running backs coach with the Vikings, helping him amass 5,782 rushing yards in four seasons. He has won two Super Bowls.
With the Bears, he’s coaching running backs for the first time since 2017. He came to Halas Hall in part because of who else was in the building: general manager Ryan Poles and Ted Crews, special advisor and chief administrative officer, with whom he worked in Kansas City, and president/CEO Kevin Warren, whose time with the Vikings overlapped Bieniemy’s. Warren said last month he was excited just “thinking about what he’s going to do for not only that running back room but for [quarterback] Caleb [Williams] as a runner.”
Bieniemy, 55, welcomes the specificity of his new job. He joked that he felt bad for the Bears’ four running backs — D’Andre Swift, Roschon Johnson, Travis Homer
and Ian Wheeler — because they’ll be the focus of all his energy. Their number could grow if the Bears select a running back in the draft later this month, perhaps as early as the first round.
“If we happen to bring in a guy, we’re going to put our arms around him. We’re going to coach him up,” Bieniemy said. “But he’s going to have to understand what we’re going to live by.”
Bieniemy wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve loved the opportunities that I’ve shared, that I’ve had the opportunity to have experience with,” he said. “But the best thing I’m fired up about right now is I’ve got four people in that room. I get to pour my all into those four guys.”
