Why Kansas City Chiefs practices have a different feel this summer
As Patrick Mahomes broke a huddle Wednesday afternoon, a booming speaker pulsating music onto the Chiefs’ training field, the actual soundtrack of the practice, belted out an instruction.
Get set!
They didn’t. A couple of wide receivers lined up incorrectly anyway, and after detecting it, Mahomes dipped his head and signaled for what would have been the waste of a timeout.
Standing some 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy belted out.
Get me another group! Get off the field!
The offensive players in the 7-on-7 drill — a unit that included Mahomes — jogged to the sideline and gave way to the second unit.
“We don’t have time to waste,” Bieniemy explained it after practice. “One thing is when we get in the huddle, we need to know as a group what position we’re playing — something so simple. The little things become a big thing because we’re not overcommunicating with each other. Now there’s a problem within the huddle, and that impacts everything.
“So, you know what, you kick them off the field, and you let the next group go.”
The Chiefs are 103 days ahead of their next football game. They are still installing new offensive plays, some of which they’ve literally never used before. And they are still a week shy of mandatory minicamp and seven shy of training camp.
But that’s also the point. There is a different feel to Chiefs practices, even as early as this summer — or the return of a feel the team hasn’t had on the field for the past couple of years.
Bieniemy is back. Chad O’Shea and DeMarco Murray have been added as wide receivers and running backs position coaches, respectively, and O’Shea in particular also brings a certain energy to practice.
What does that entail for an offense that hasn’t finished better than 15th in scoring in the last three years? That’s still to be determined.
What does it entail every day?
Well, this.
“I love it, man,” Mahomes said of Bieniemy’s practice return. “I truly do. I think you can feel it in meeting rooms.
“... It’s been exciting to me. The first meeting had me wanting to run through a brick wall. It had me ready to go.”
The energy is often infectious. The details are often the subject.
Over the past week-plus, players and coaches have attempted to walk a tightrope in not making this subject a commentary on last season — none have said a negative word about Matt Nagy, who’s now calling plays for the New York Giants.
But at least some of it is about what the Chiefs attempted to live without. And the rest of it is about the player who sought they get this kind of flavor back in the building: Mahomes.
A team needs hard coaching. It needs energy at practice. It also needs the franchise quarterback not to have to play the bad guy.
But it’s a sign of a certain maturity that it wasn’t just Reid and the front office who felt they needed Bieniemy back to reestablish a culture that had been slipping. Mahomes wanted it, too, because he noticed it, too. He did not make the decision on the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator. Andy Reid reached out to Bieniemy almost immediately after the Bears were bounced from the NFL playoffs in January.
But it’s the direction he hoped the Chiefs would go — knowing that direction would almost undoubtedly make his life harder.
That’s the maturity. A 6-11 season has a way of reshaping the past — a way of making you focus on what you missed more than what you have.
The time apart has been a reminder that even if Bieniemy hasn’t always delivered a message he wants to hear, he’s unafraid to deliver one he believes a half-billion-dollar quarterback needs to hear.
“He’s going to hold you to that standard — no matter who you are,” Mahomes said. “From the first guy to the 90th guy, he’s going to hold you to that standard. I think that’s something (that is) hard to replicate — I think that’s the best way to say it.”
How will that correlate to more than six wins and fewer than 11 losses? The proof has to arrive in 103 days and the 17 weeks beyond.
That foundation has to be built now.
This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why Kansas City Chiefs practices have a different feel this summer."