Andy Reid Teases Changes Ahead for Chiefs Following Disappointing 2025 Season

One change he’s excited about is having Eric Bieniemy back as offensive coordinator.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid is excited to make some changes within the team for the 2026 season. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The Chiefs missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 this past season after going 6–11. On top of this disappointing result for the current Chiefs dynasty, quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a torn ACL to end his season prematurely.

It’s clear Kansas City needs to make some changes for the 2026 season in order to bring back the spark the team’s had for over a decade. Andy Reid is ready and excited for those offseason changes to begin.

“I’m fired up to get into this offseason and to get going,” Reid told reporters on Monday. “We didn’t do very well this past year, so I want to fix the problems that we had in all phases. ... There will be people that move on, there will be people that come in. We'll cover that all down the road here. Change can be good sometimes for you, so that’s what I’m fired up about.”

The change seemingly starts with the offense, as the Chiefs moved on from Matt Nagy as OC and brought back Eric Bieniemy, who previously held the position from 2018–22 during two Super Bowl wins. Nagy is a candidate for various other openings across the league, and Reid wanted to give him the opportunity to take those.

“He’ll go out and be able to put his own mark on things,” Reid said. “That takes my name off of it, and he gets the purity of it. I was hoping that it would be a head coaching position—and it still might be that. He deserves that—definitely, for sure. And if that doesn’t work, it gives him an opportunity to step in as a coordinator and run a show from there.”

Nagy was the OC for the past three seasons, winning one Super Bowl title with the Chiefs in the role.

Reid has full faith in Bieniemy returning to Chiefs

Mahomes and Travis Kelce already expressed their excitement having Bieniemy back in Kansas City, and Reid spoke to his anticipation of the return on Monday.

Although Bieniemy hasn’t been on the staff the past three seasons, he knows how to work with a majority of the players and other coaches.

“EB does, he’s going to be very direct with the players, very direct with the coaches,” Reid said. “It’s a different flavor. Both have been very productive in this system here. So, I think it’s a win-win for us that way. But there’s nobody like EB on the field that way. He does a great job there.”

Now, Bieniemy can add what he’s taken from his roles with the Commanders and Bears and bring those ideas to Kansas City to help with the changes the team are wanting to make.

“Everywhere you go in this business, you pick something up,” Reid said. “And you might take it with you or you might say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to do that, I don’t want to do that.’ And at the same time, he’s got all those years in this system, too. He understands that, so I welcome that.”

While the goal of every NFL team looking to rebuild is to turn things around and get to the postseason, expectations for the Chiefs are a bit higher, as they’ve appeared in five of the past six Super Bowls. We’ll see if their reshuffling can get them back on top of the AFC.

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