Eric Bieniemy Getting Commanders 'Out of Their Comfort Zone,' Says Ron Rivera

Eric Bieniemy has only been with Washington for a short time, but he is already making his presence felt.

New Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is wasting no time putting his stamp on his new group.

After swapping Kansas City for Washington, many have high hopes regarding what Bieniemy can bring to the Commanders offense. But first...he is getting the team to practice how he wants as OTA's get underway.

And head coach Ron Rivera is all for it.

"Well, it's been exciting," Rivera said. "Yesterday was a really good day. You know, EB is a high energy, high-impact guy. He doesn't hold in. He doesn't pull any punches. He's very direct with the players, which has been good. One of the things that we talked about was just changing the way we do things. I gave him the opportunity to script a lot of things that we're doing. He is handling all the scheduling. I basically just laid the format out, given it to him and, and he's put it all together, so that's why things are different."

After having Scott Turner as the offensive coordinator from 2020-2022, naturally, Washington had gotten comfortable with how the offense was run.

But with Bieniemy, he has flipped the script and is doing things in a new and improved way. 

But how is the team handling the change?

"It is different, and it is kind of getting us outta this comfort zone," Rivera said. "I know he talked a lot about that during his press conference about being uncomfortable. I wanted to give him the opportunity to stick to what I told you guys and that he was going to be very involved in a lot of those things."

After having the 24th-ranked offense last season (18.9 points per game), there was a clear need for change. With Bieniemy coming from a winning organization like the Chiefs, naturally, he is bringing some of that knowledge with him.

But it won't be easy, and the road to improvement starts with being uncomfortable, and Bieniemy is making sure that nothing is easy for the Commanders players this offseason.

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