More Head Coach Musical Chairs Still Left Eric Bieniemy Without a Seat
Every offseason for the past few years, the Kansas City Chiefs have come off a campaign that saw them have one of the NFL's best offenses and host the AFC Championship Game at the very least. In those late January and/or early February days, there has also been significant buzz about offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy potentially being hired for a head coaching position on another team.
This year, that hype lasted until Feb. 14. The Arizona Cardinals' hiring of former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and the Indianapolis Colts' introduction of former Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen on Tuesday, there are no more head coaching vacancies around the league as of the publishing of this article. Both coordinators that Bieniemy's Chiefs defeated in Super Bowl LVII are in new places, and they managed to secure those gigs without the track record Bieniemy has.
Bieniemy, who has had 17 total meetings since this process began years ago, simply doesn't appear to have a fair shot at landing a head coaching job given his current set of circumstances. He's helped lead the Chiefs to heights no other team has reached since he took over and he's spoken with half of the NFL's 32 clubs, yet no one has decided that he's their desired man for the job. He had just one interview for a head coaching role this cycle, and the Colts opted for someone else. It's abundantly clear that the 53-year-old won't be engineering an entire team in 2023.
Just days after Kansas City's championship victory, head coach Andy Reid spoke about plans for the offseason and what the team has in store in the upcoming days, weeks and potentially months. When asked about possible turnover or changes to his staff, Reid addressed the Bieniemy situation specifically. Bieniemy's future with the team is unclear given that his contract is expiring, and Reid once again backed his offensive coordinator to the highest degree despite the rest of the league not picking up on his consistently positive message.
A year ago, following another failed hiring cycle for Bieniemy, he and Reid met and he ultimately decided to return to Kansas City in late February. The door is open for a similar outcome this time around, but there's also another option for Bieniemy to take that hasn't yet been exhausted. The Washington Commanders remain interested in Bieniemy as a prime candidate for their offensive coordinator position and, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the two sides will meet for an interview on Thursday. Could that be the best place for Bieniemy to have success?
The easy answer is no, as Washington doesn't have even remotely close to the same infrastructure in the front office, coaching staff or roster that Kansas City does. The Commanders don't have a Reid or a Brett Veach, and they certainly don't have a Patrick Mahomes ready to take snaps under center. If Bieniemy were to have a good interview and end up as the franchise's new offensive coordinator, there's no guarantee that he'd manage to impress.
With that said, Ron Rivera has easily-traceable ties to Reid — something that could absolutely play to Bieniemy's advantage during the interview and hiring processes. While the Commanders are missing the most important piece that elevates a middling club to contender status, the cupboard isn't completely bare on that squad. An 8-8-1 club from this season has room for improvement and a pretty clear path to generating a good amount of cap space with a few simple transactions. If Bieniemy were able to lead Washington to tangible improvement on offense, that could be a swaying factor in any future pursuits of a head coaching job.
Whether this is fair or not is another conversation. Based on past hires from around the league in the last several years, this doesn't truly appear to be about calling plays. It doesn't appear to be about experience. It definitely isn't about a lack of peer or player support and endorsement. It's about something, though, and Bieniemy's only chance of defying the odds and overcoming several shortcomings in head coaching cycles might just be to take a leap of faith and hope for the best. He's part of an amazing program in Kansas City but for one reason or another, he's still without the job he deserves by most accounts.
Once the music stopped for the NFL's 2022-23 edition of head coach musical chairs, Bieniemy didn't have a seat and instead had to watch everyone else keep playing. It's an obvious and unfortunate trend now, and the next week-plus could factor into how next year's game unfolds as well for the most talked about, yet still not hired coordinator in football.
