On a sunny but cold December afternoon, Eric Bieniemy assembled his tools and started to prepare for the day’s lesson.

Bieniemy worked at his own pace on one field at Halas Hall in Lake Forest. Music blared from a distance as Chicago Bears players stretched in the background on the next field over.

But Bieniemy focused on the task at hand. He grabbed some small orange cones and spaced them out diagonally down the sideline. Next, he dragged over some bags and placed three on each side of the cones. Bieniemy then grabbed a few more cones and meticulously placed them down the sideline at each yard line.

He double-checked his sheet for the day’s plan before sharing a quick laugh with a Bears staffer. Once a horn blared signaling the end of stretching, Bieniemy made his way down the field and joined the other Bears offensive coaches as the offensive players ran on to his field.

Class was in session.

“It’s always a challenge, regardless of what position that you’re coaching,” Bieniemy, the Bears running back coach, told Shaw Local News Network. “Because you always want to be at your best so you can give your players the best opportunity to be successful.”

It’s a challenge Bieniemy missed. Over the past eight years, Bieniemy served as an offensive coordinator for three different teams, most notably winning two Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs. He even flirted with becoming a head coach.

But Bieniemy has rediscovered his old self in Chicago, even if his old self wouldn’t recognize him now with his white beard. He’s returned to his roots as a running backs coach and helped transform the Bears running unit from one of the league’s worst to one of its best along the way.

“But more than anything, I’m just having fun,” Bieniemy said. “It’s been fun working with these guys, has been fun coaching them up. But more importantly, watching them have the success that they’ve had.”

Connecting back to the NFL

Even if he didn’t want to admit it at the time, Bieniemy eventually wanted to return to the NFL.

Bieniemy had left the league in 2023 after 11 straight seasons when he became the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at UCLA. It was an eventful 11 seasons.

That run started in Kansas City in 2013 as the Chiefs’ running backs coach. He eventually became the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator and won two Super Bowls. With the success came head coach interviews, but he never landed a job.

He left in 2022 and joined the Washington Commanders as their assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. But Washington changed coaching staffs and Bieniemy had to look for another challenge.

When he made the jump to UCLA, Bieniemy thought in the back of his head that he’d be back in the NFL one day. But until then, he’d focus on the challenge ahead.

“You can only do so much and if you keep continuing to think forward, you’re setting yourself up for failure,” Bieniemy said. “So you want to make sure you’re taking care of the task at hand.”

Bieniemy joined first-year UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster’s staff as the Bruins struggled in their first season in the Big Ten. UCLA went 5-7 in 2024 and Foster fired Bieniemy after the Bruins’ offense finished near the bottom of some offensive categories in the Big Ten.

Looking for his fourth job in four years, Bieniemy relied on his connections. Bieniemy had built up an extensive contact list during his coaching career, which — at that point —spanned 24 years and five different NFL and college teams.

There was a mutual interest between Bieniemy and the Bears after they had hired Ben Johnson as their head coach. Johnson had already chosen Declan Doyle as his offensive coordinator but he wanted to build a coaching staff that had different experiences and viewpoints.

“He’s very experienced,” Doyle said in the spring. “He’s a guy that’s been to the mountaintop. He knows what it looks like. Obviously, he’s going to have an impact on that running back group. He’ll have an impact on our whole offensive staff. But, he has a lot of experience in a number of different areas of scheme.”

Bieniemy had plenty of ties to Chicago. He had previously crossed paths with team president and CEO Kevin Warren in Minnesota and general manager Ryan Poles in Kansas City.

When he wanted to learn more about Johnson, Bieniemy reached out to his good friend Darrell Bevell. Bevell had been the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator and interim head coach when Johnson joined his staff. Bieniemy said Bevell had nothing but good things to say about the fast-rising coach.

“When you meet enough good people and you work with good people to me, sometimes those bridges just form a connection,” Bieniemy said. “Somehow, some way, we just ended up connecting.”

Johnson needed an experienced running backs coach. Running the ball was an essential part of Johnson’s offense in Detroit and he wanted to continue that in Chicago with someone who would execute the details Johnson wanted at the position.

Bieniemy seemed like the perfect fit. He had been a running back in the NFL for three teams and served as a running backs coach on four different teams in the NFL and college.

“I told Ben, ‘You know, if you’re looking for a running back coach, I’m not opposed to coaching running backs,’” Bieniemy said. “That’s where I started and I enjoy it.”

Method to the yelling

After the Bears drafted rookie running back Kyle Monangai thid spring, Monangai reached out to his former Rutgers teammate Isiah Pacheco for a scouting report on Bieniemy. Pacheco had played under Bieniemy with the Chiefs and had a blunt warning.

“Expect to get yelled at,” Monangai said. “Like, expect to get yelled at. He’s not going to take it light, gonna tell you how he feels. He’s going to demand a lot and expect a lot of you. But he knows a lot. So it’s from a place of knowledge.”

Monangai quickly realized how true that report was. It doesn’t take long to find Bieniemy once practice starts. Just follow the yelling.

Bieniemy’s usually on his side of the field running his backs through drills. Bieniemy watches every repetition intently, harping on the details of every single movement. Almost each rep gets a loud response.

“Good, good,” if he likes what he sees.

A quick, but loud, correction if he doesn’t.

The Bears quickly learned there was a method to the yelling. Don’t mind how loudly Bieniemy yells something. Listen to what he’s saying.

“Every single day, you know what you’re gonna get,” Bears running back D’Andre Swift said. “He doesn’t allow anybody on the offense, in the building really, to slack. He allows you to bring out your full potential yourself and things like that. He’s going to make sure you’re knowing the details and the little minute things that you need to go ahead and succeed at your job.”

It started to click more as the season progressed. The new additions to the offensive line jelled. Tight ends and wide receivers bought into Johnson’s “no block, no rock” mentality. Bears running backs ran the way Johnson and Bieniemy wanted.

It came together in Week 7 when the Bears rushed for 222 yards against the New Orleans Saints. Two weeks later, they topped themselves for 283 yards with Swift out of the lineup against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Then came the dominant performance on Black Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Chicago bullied its way down the field and rushed for 281 yards. Swift and Monangai each rushed for over 100 yards — the first time Bears rushers had done that since Walter Payton and Matt Suhey did it in 1985.

The win marked the total transformation of the Bears’ running game. Chicago ended last season 25th with 102 rushing yards per game. Entering Week 16, the Bears are second in the NFL with a 151.9 rushing average.

“I think Eric Bieniemy is doing a phenomenal job with all those backs,” Johnson said. “I mean, he takes a lot of pride in finishing, he takes a lot of pride in playing physical football, he takes a lot of pride in pass protection. All the things that I think a good running backs coach embodies, that’s what Eric Bieniemy is about.”

‘Not taking anything for granted’

Bieniemy is happy to be back in that running back room.

Don’t get him wrong. Bieniemy misses being an offensive coordinator. He misses calling plays.

But Bieniemy also feels at home in that room. He’s got a group of five running backs that are his sole focus. It’s offered him a new perspective into how impactful he can be.

“There’s been a number of things that I’ve seen and witnessed that, as a coordinator, that you wish you could have done better by stepping into that running back room,” Bieniemy said. “But now that I’m in there, I’m not taking anything for granted. I want these guys to be successful.”

Bieniemy has brought out the best in everyone in that room.

Swift is on pace to have a career year. After an offseason where many analysts thought the Bears needed to move on from Swift, he’s rushed for 935 yards, 114 shy of his career-high, and seven touchdowns, one shy of his career-best.

Bieniemy also found ways to help Monangai, a seventh-round pick, transition to the NFL. Monangai has rushed for 681 yards, which has him ninth all-time amongst Bears rookie running backs, to go along with five touchdowns.

“But more than anything, I’m just having fun. It’s been fun working with these guys, has been fun coaching them up. But more importantly, watching them have the success that they’ve had.”

—  Eric Bieniemy, Chicago Bears running back coach

Others like Roschon Johnson and Brittain Brown have made impacts in their limited carries. Brown rushed for 37 yards when called into action against the Bengals for his first career carries while Roschon Johnson picked up 17 yards on his two season carries.

All four backs average at least 4.5 yards per carry, which has been Bieniemy’s goal all season.

“He’s done a great job with the backs,” Doyle said. “They’re very detailed. Those guys want to be coached. He’s certainly very hard on them. He expects a lot out of them. But he’s done a great job of getting those guys ready to go play.”

Bieniemy has used his offensive coordinator experience to help it all make sense. When he explains a play, Bieniemy approaches it from an offense-wide perspective. Most positional coaches usually just limit it to the group they’re coaching.

That approach has allowed Bears running backs to know what piece of the puzzle they are on any given play. They understand what the play is trying to accomplish and their role in making sure that gets done.

“It allows us to understand where we fit in the picture on each play, the intent of each play,” Monangai said. “So it’s a different perspective and he’s a knowledgeable person.”

That knowledge hasn’t been limited to his own players either.

When Bieniemy heard that Bears defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett’s son was a running back for his high school team, he asked for the team’s schedule. Bieniemy attended games during the fall to support Garrett’s son and gave give him some tips too.

“I think it just speaks to his character, like this is who he is,” Garrett said. “This is his character. It’s not fake. He’s a genuine human being to the coaches on the coaching staff and his players as well. It’s fantastic.”

Never comfortable

Bieniemy doesn’t know if this room will be his last. When a reporter recently asked whether he’s settled in with the Bears, Bieniemy went back to his coaching instinct.

“You’re never comfortable,” Bieniemy said. “Comfort is the enemy of progress. So you always want to make sure that you’re challenging yourself in many different ways to improve on your skill set. So that’s the beauty of where we’re at right now. The only thing I can take care of is today.”

That today is the start of an important three-game stretch Saturday night when the Bears host the Green Bay Packers. Chicago will have a chance to qualify for playoffs for the first time since 2020 and wins its first NFC North title since 2018.

That’s Bieniemy’s next challenge. He’s always searched for ways to help his players get their “ass across the finish line,” as he likes to say. After doing it for almost 25 years, he’s still having fun finding ways to get it done.

“I can’t complain,” Bieniemy said. “I still get to enjoy a kids game. So yes, I have fun every single day when I come to work. I’m enjoying myself.”