It wasthe second year in which the the chiefs transgression looked dominant en route to its second Super Bowl in four seasons. Missouri’s only NFL team has hosted the conference championship game in each of the last five seasons and never lost in the regular season. Patrick Mahomes he’s getting the spoils as the best running back in the game and talk has already begun at 27 that he’s already the first Hall of Famer. Andy Reid went from being a solid coach and a great person to one of the greatest to ever line the sidelines. Where’s the confetti for Kansas City offensive chorusdinator Eric Bienemy?
The window for Bienemy to become head coach in 2023 is closed
With Jonathan Gannon named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday, another NFL head coaching merry-go-round offseason has ended, with Bienemy interviewing and not being offered an NFL head coaching job, while those with less experience and fewer successes cross the border. It’s not about whether Bienemy can be a head coach. Does anyone see any team’s first year under him going as badly as Nathaniel Hackett’s tenure in Denver? If you’d rather have the current Jets offensive coordinator leading your team, here you go. On planet Earth, Bienemy would not allow the situation to deteriorate so quickly. And it’s clear that that opportunity won’t happen unless something drastically changes for him.
There seem to be two possibilities for Bienemy to enter the NFL’s head coaching fraternity. First would be the higher risk, higher reward option of leaving the Chiefs. Leaving Kansas City’s ideal situation to run the offense would separate his accomplishments from Reid’s, rather than sharing or giving most of the credit. FOX’s Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen he praised Reid for the decisions that led to the team’s double-digit comeback in Super Bowl LVII over the Eagles, not the team’s offensive coordinator. Going to a team like the Commanders, who have shown public interest obtaining Bienemy’s services, he would reveal his summoner abilities. Washington head coach Ron Rivera is clearly a defensive-minded coach, leaving Bienemy on an island when it comes to running the offense. With a decent amount of talent in the nation’s capital, how he would elevate Sam Howell would be a great sign of his performance as head coach. On the other hand, others are hired with less evidence, but that’s just not the reality for Bienemy.
The only other option, after multiple host cycles have passed he by would extend Reid’s tenure in Kansas City and take over as his current boss — make Mahomes and Reid hand the job to him as best they can. Bienemy clearly has adequate support from the Kansas City front office. And with no signs of Reid slowing down at age 64, it could be a long wait, despite how strongly the two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach feels about his star pupil. It’s an odd juxtaposition, as Reid was named Eagles head coach more than two decades ago without any playing experience. Binemy probably won’t get the same freedom, and became a posterboy for inequality in the NFL head coaching ranks.
What is the reason BieNemy keeps switching?
The list of charges Bienemy’s time as a running back at Colorado to becoming a college coach is troubling, including allegedly grabbing a parking lot attendant by the neck and threatening her in 1993. Not having a perfect record is reason enough not to hire him as a head coach, but let’s not to pretend he would be the only one with an unsavory past who had the chance to lead an NFL team. Are we forgetting Urban Meyer so quickly? Some wondered if Bienemy would return to college when the job opened up for the Buffaloes a few months ago. Colorado ended up hiring Deion Sanders. Even so, Jim Harbaugh’s flirtation with returning to the NFL and leaving Michigan has a lot more credence, because he led the team to the Super Bowl before his current stint in Ann Arbor. Bienemy does not have any coaching experience on his CV.
It’s foolish to pretend that Bienemy’s circumstances will be much different next year when another coaching carousel begins. He has done more than enough to prove that by NFL standards he was worthy of being one of the league’s 32 head coaches long ago. And they’ve passed him more than a dozen times since the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2020. Even if Kansas City doesn’t win another title next season, who doubts its offense won’t look impressive? And that will be partly because of Bienemy.
On paper, leaving the Chiefs for a raise and a new opportunity would do the trick. Then you have to remember that the people who hire the head coaches are not going to change, even if Bienemy leads Washington to playoff success in the easier conference. Although none with vacancies over the past three years he would have hired him, he will have to wait for Clark Hunt to promote him. And Bienemy will be well late when that day comes.