Chiefs’ Andy Reid Defends Eric Bieniemy After LeSean McCoy Criticism

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Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid stood up for offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Friday in the wake of critical comments made by retired former Chiefs running back LeSean McCoy.

Appearing this week on the I Am Athlete podcast, McCoy gave his thoughts on Bieniemy and why he has yet to land an NFL head coaching job, saying:

“Listen, because some players he talks to them a certain way and some players would take it. I wouldn’t take it, like ‘Whoa.’ … That’s the reason why that every year they hype him up to get a job, and then when the time comes, nobody hires him because they know what type of coach he really is.”

Per ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith, Reid suggested McCoy’s frustration came from a place of struggling to acknowledge his own diminished skills rather than anything Bieniemy did:

“Sometimes it’s hard on a veteran player. Maybe their performance level isn’t what it used to be, and it’s hard to take sometimes. But [Bieniemy is] going to push you to try to maximize what you’ve got. That’s one of his strengths. … He’ll come in and shoot you straight. Sometimes you want to hear it. Sometimes you don’t. …

“I’m a big LeSean fan. In my eyes, he’s a future Hall of Fame running back. If you look at it statistically, he’s tremendous. But he wasn’t the youngest pup in the kennel here. He was on the back side and sometimes that’s hard to take.”

McCoy, who retired in October at the age of 33, spent just one season with the Chiefs in 2019.

This article will be updated soon to provide more information and analysis. 

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