KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Andy Reid, Brett Veach and the Chiefs are already halfway there.

Less than three weeks after their season ended, they’ve already checked off two of the four most important tasks in cooking up a recipe to put Patrick Mahomes in the 2026 MVP conversation.

1-Know your Bieniemy

First, they officially announced the return of Eric Bieniemy on Friday afternoon. And maybe the Chiefs’ social-media team knows something about Bieniemy’s return potentially leading to Travis Kelce’s return, as the tight end seemed to indicate earlier this week.

Bieniemy’s return should at least return Mahomes to the best years of his career, before Bieniemy left for Washington in 2023.

2-Flip or flop

Second, Kansas City gutted its offensive coaching staff. Andy Reid still controls 51 percent of the offense, but the remaining 49 percent will look much different in 2026. Soon after the season, Reid fired both his wide receivers coach Connor Embree and running backs coach Todd Pinkston – in addition to not renewing the contract of Matt Nagy and officially closing the door on a return Friday morning.

Both moves had to be difficult for Reid, who coached Pinkston in Philadelphia and carries great respect for Embree and his dad, former NFL tight end and longtime NFL coach John Embree. Nonetheless, both running backs and wide receivers were problem positions for the Chiefs and Reid made the moves in the best interest of what’s best for Mahomes.

New ideas and better coaching will certainly help Mahomes in 2026. Last week, the Chiefs reportedly hired Chad O’Shea to replace Embree as wide receivers coach. Reid is still looking for his next running backs coach, although Bieniemy as a former NFL veteran at the position will obviously help in that area.

Mahomes last week addressed what went wrong in 2025.

“I think just compounding mistakes,” the quarterback said Jan. 15. “I mean, you make mistakes throughout a game. For myself, I look at some of the red-zone interceptions I threw in kind of bigger moments in the third and fourth quarters of games. I mean, that’s stuff that I hadn’t done in the past. So, speaking for myself, just trying to be better in those moments.”

Bieniemy should help Mahomes be better in those moments, good enough to jump back into the MVP race in 2026.

3-Change the tendencies

Kansas City actually had an assistant coach on its 2025 staff responsible for countering offensive gameplans: Assistant running backs coach Mark DeLeone. A former NFL linebackers coach, DeLeone had a job description that included dissecting the Chiefs’ weekly attack from a defensive standpoint. His job as a contrarian was to eliminate tendencies while highlighting vulnerabilities.

DeLeone disappeared from the team’s official list of coaches soon after the season. Now, whatever the Chiefs do to replace those duties, they have to be better. Kansas City was the NFL’s most predictable offense in 2025.

Among other disturbing trends, the Chiefs ran RPOs (run-pass options) on 14.3 percent of plays, most in the league. To compound that tendency, of the 114 RPOs with Mahomes, 92.1 percent of the time he passed the ball.

“I think, offensively, we weren’t consistent enough throughout games,” Mahomes said last week. “We had stretches in games where we played good. We had stretches in the season where we played really good. But we got to be better. And that starts with me and then it kind of has to feed throughout the entire offense.”

4-Mahomes himself

Tom Brady needed six years after his ACL injury to win another Super Bowl. Mahomes said last week his goal to return is Week 1, but perspective is highly important. Taking an extra week or two, if necessary, would ensure his knee is strong enough to avoid complications, would go a long way toward long-term success.

But the quarterback’s rehab is off to a great start, he said last week. He’s surrounded with good people both at the Chiefs’ facility and at home. And he’s in a position to get back to his familiar leadership role, albeit with new offensive coaches.

“Guys are motivated,” Mahomes said. “Coaches, players, we’re all motivated to be better this next year. And like I said, it sucks watching these games. I mean, I want to be out there playing football, and especially at this time of year; it’s the best time of year to play football. So, they’ll give us the motivation, hopefully, for us to come back stronger next year.”