Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has played a pivotal role in a Super Bowl win and in coordinating one of the best offenses in the NFL. After five seasons as the top assistant on Andy Reid’s staff, Bieniemy might finally have a shot to become an NFL head coach.
Bieniemy’s track record in Kansas City speaks for itself. He won the Sporting News’ Coordinator of the Year award in 2020, helping Kansas City win Super Bowl LIV. He also holds glowing recommendations from Reid and perennial NFL MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes.
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Yet, year after year, he is seemingly passed on for numerous NFL head-coaching vacancies. He received limited interview opportunities this past season, leaving many to wonder if he would ever become an NFL head coach.
According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, Bieniemy’s shot might finally come. The Chiefs’ offensive coordinator will reportedly be someone a number of teams are interested in looking into this offseason. More importantly, there is more buzz surrounding his chances this year than anything that existed a year ago.
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“We weren’t hearing his name much at this time last year, and he didn’t go for a lot of interviews after the season. But I’d be very surprised if he didn’t get at least an interview in Denver, and there are a lot of people I talk to about the coaching carousel who believe this could finally be the year Bienemy gets his shot.”
ESPN’s Dan Graziano on Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy
Bieniemy has gone through the interview process before. However, a variety of varied reports have provided different reasons for why he still isn’t an NFL head coach. Among them are concerns regarding off-field issues that happened in 1991 and 2001 at Colorado, red flags that didn’t prevent Mike Vrabel nor Matt Patricia from being hired.
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Others have suggested NFL teams are hesitant because Bieniemy isn’t the Chiefs’ primary play-caller. Although, it’s worth noting that Nick Sirianni, Dan Campbell and Zac Taylor never served as the play-callers before they became head coaches.
- Kansas City Chiefs offense (2022): 420.6 total ypg (1st), 303.5 pass ypg (1st), 29.2 PPG (1st), 365 first downs (1st), 49.6% third-down conversion rate (T-1st)
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has publicly and privately been critical of the league’s hiring process in light of the Brian Flores lawsuit. With the inconsistency of standards and red flags being assigned to different candidates, the reservations teams have had regarding Bieniemy might suddenly fade away after years of public criticism and private scrutiny.
If that proves to be true, Bieniemy might finally receive an opportunity he likely earned years ago. There are already three openings around the league with more to come and all of that bodes well for Bieniemy in 2023.