Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. Oh. Over the weekend, Yes, they announced eb as a team's newest assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. He comes to town with over twenty years of coaching experience, most recently serving as the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator at the past five seasons now. While with the Chiefs, Viennemy helped mold their offense into one of the league's best, resulting in two Super Bowl titles in the last four years.
Viennamy got his coaching curse started at his alma mater, coaching running backs at Colorado in two thousand and one. His first coaching ranks the NFL come as the running backs coach in Minnesota, where he helped guide Adrian Peterson to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year in two thousand and seven. Then, after a two years stint back at Colorado as the OC, Viennemey joined the Chiefs in two thirteen, where he's spent five years coaching running backs, followed by
five years as the offensive coordinator. The logan I'm going to start with you on this one because you actually have experience with Viennemey going on the way back to UCLA days. Not too long ago, right, I mean, yes, it was a very long time ago. Who's counting the years. But you kind of knew him as a coach. Yeah, I knew him as a coach. He was the guy that recruited me. He sat of my house, we had dinner together, he said, you surely come to UCLA And
he was this very mild mantled gentleman. And then the first practice I went to, I've never seen someone yellow at other human being the way he held at somebody. And that was his standard. He held people, the running back specifically, do a very very high standard. He coached very, very hard. But he was also a great guy to be around and a guy that you know, showed me a lot about what it means to be a good pro. Now, I think, okay, so we're a few years past that.
He now has coaching experience at a couple other colleges, and of course, most notably having won that second ring at Kansas City just a week or so ago. So Santana, everybody kind of wants to know why would he take this job, in particular when he was already in a good spot. Yeah, that's the big question. I mean that's something that still I'm scratching my hand about, like what is it that we don't know? And I think we won't know until he comes out and have his press conference.
But I really wanted to understand a little more behind a mass. I guess you can say of what is favorable on this side than it was having Pat Mahomes and being able to take those one year deals. You're out the year. So he gets the title of assistant head coach. What does that mean? Yeah, I think that's just a nice pay bump, you know, like when you're transitioning teams, like that's an easy way to kind of
say we're gonna upgrade you. We're gonna give you a higher position within the team because the assistant that coach doesn't do a lot day to day. But it is kind of an endorsement saying we think you have head coaching material and if something were to happen roun, you're gonna take that mantle. But I asked the question, does that also say you may be the the guy? Yeah? I don't know, man, you got you're looking into your
crystal ball. I love run brings to the table, but just you know, you never know how long he may have to say, Hey, if they're not gonna do with you there, we will do it here. So I'm just maybe,
you know, one of those things. As many people think he should have been deserving of a head coaching position quite a few years ago, and here he is not coming in as an assistant head coaching offensive coordinator, but he kind of gets some of the shadow from being under Andy Reid, and many people are saying, Okay, how much control did he have versus Andy? And over here he should have more control over what he wants to
do and who he wants to put in place as well. Yeah, I mean I don't think the control things that big of a deal. Like, I mean, that's what Sean did. Sean was under kind of Jay and then he goes on and it's the head coach, and I think it's it's not that important. He got to see the most important parts of what Andy does, cultivating the game plan, developing, developing the offensive philosophy, the details with which Andy Reid coaches. So I think he's gonna bring that here and just
be doing outstanding job. Okay, So he brings his own style and that was one of the things and one of the reasons why head coach Ron Rivera said he wanted to make the changes. He wanted something different. So what type of offense does he bring with him, Santana, And that's the question right there too. I mean, when it comes down to what I've seen from the last war five years, just along with you know, with Andy Reid's offense, it's like the West West coach Andy Reid
hybrid and we're talking about running. We can still run with this offense, you know. I mean he showed year after year when he had you know, Chars and all those other different running backs, that they had backs that rush for over a fifteen hundred yards at some point in their their career there. So that's gonna be an interesting, you know task that we're going to see high play out. I believe when it comes to what we have here, we have the system, we have the playerff that's built
for whatever he brings. I think that's a really good point, Tan, is that or during his time in Kansas City, they're in multiple different offenses, different offenses air quotes right, run, heavy, pass, heavy on speaking to the personnel, And I think that's what you're getting with a guy like Aaron Bademy, someone who understands how to speak to the skill set. You know, he had Patrick Mahomes and as we're well aware how important the quarterback is to win and the reason why
they did win a couple of Super Bowls. But look, Pat Mahomes had to be molded into who he was today. He didn't just come out of college Wady. Yeah, he had the arm strength, but he had to kind of adapt to that. Andy Reid is known to be the quarterback whispered. Does the enemy bring that same kind of talent to be able to develop as Sam Howell into that guy. I think it's kind of some of stuff's Tandar was sitting on like, you got to speak to what they've got, right. You can't just put Sam how
out there and say you're Patrick Mahomes. You say, how do we insulate you? How do we make you a better football player? And the fact that he's shown an ability to do that I think is extremely important. Yeah, that's the thing that you know that I want to see,
you know how this thing pans out? Just knowing that what Sam showed us last year and just in a pink size all effort, but he showed us that he's a guy that you know, if things break down, he can he can be special too, So just knowing where where all the enemy is coming from with the offensive style and everything. He has a quarterback here already, not say who we're going to get in the future, but he has the one here that he can probably work with.
And head coach Ron Rivera told me out the Super Bowl that they're going to do everything possible to give Sam. How will the opportunity to be that number one quarterback? Now, we all know you were so excited about the Eric b Enemy news and the Higher, so head over to Commanders dot com to stay up to date on everything as the story continues to unfold. We have a collection
of social media reactions to the B Enemy news. We've got fans and current players weighing, and even team president Jason Wright sharing his thoughts on the Higher, So go ahead and check that out right. You might even want to see your own tweet there as well. Known for all your news and analysis, be sure to tune into Command Center WEIG nights at five and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream on YouTube and Commanders dot com. Think y