It was one other 12 months during which the Chiefs’ offense looked dominant en path to their second Tremendous Bowl in 4 seasons. Missouri’s solely NFL workforce has hosted a convention championship sport every of the final 5 seasons and was defeated in regulation zero occasions. Patrick Mahomes will get the spoils as the very best quarterback within the sport and conversations have already begun at 27 that he’s already a first-ballot Corridor of Famer. Andy Reid went from a stable coach and nice individual to being thought-about among the many best to ever tow a sideline. The place’s the confetti for Kansas Metropolis offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy?
The window for Bienemy to be a head coach in 2023 has closed
With Jonathan Gannon being named the Arizona Cardinals head coach on Tuesday, one other offseason NFL head teaching carousel trip has accomplished, with Bienemy interviewing and never being supplied a head teaching job within the NFL, while those with less experience and fewer success soar the road. It’s not a matter of whether or not Bienemy could possibly be a head coach. Does anybody see a 12 months one on any workforce underneath him going as badly as Nathaniel Hackett’s tenure in Denver? When you’d moderately have the present Jets’ offensive coordinator operating your workforce, be my visitor. On planet Earth, Bienemy wouldn’t let any scenario deteriorate that rapidly. And it’s clear that chance isn’t going to occur with out one thing drastic altering for him.
There seem like two choices for Bienemy to get into the NFL’s head teaching fraternity. First could be the upper threat, larger reward possibility of leaving the Chiefs. Leaving a really perfect scenario in Kansas Metropolis to run an offense would separate his accomplishments from Reid, as a substitute of sharing or making a gift of a majority of the credit score. FOX’s Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen shouted out Reid for the choices that led to the workforce’s double-digit Tremendous Bowl LVII comeback over the Eagles, not the workforce’s offensive coordinator. Going to a workforce just like the Commanders, who’ve proven public curiosity in acquiring Bienemy’s services, would expose his talents as a play caller. Washington head coach Ron Rivera is clearly a defensive-minded coach, leaving Bienemy on an island in the case of operating the offense. With a good quantity of expertise within the nation’s capital, how he’d elevate Sam Howell could be an important signal of how he’d carry out as a head coach. Then once more, others have been employed with much less proof, however that’s simply not the truth for Bienemy.
The one different possibility, after a number of head-coaching cycles handed him by, could be outlasting Reid’s tenure in Kansas Metropolis and taking on for his present boss — getting Mahomes and Reid handy him the job as greatest they will. Bienemy clearly has the correct assist from Kansas Metropolis’s entrance workplace. And with no indicators of Reid slowing down at 64, that may be a protracted wait, regardless of how strongly the two-time Tremendous Bowl-winning head coach thinks of his star pupil. It’s an odd juxtaposition, as a result of Reid was named the Eagles’ head coach over twenty years in the past with none play-calling expertise. Bienemy probably gained’t get the identical leeway, and he’s change into the poster boy (man) for the inequities within the NFL’s head teaching ranks.
What’s the rationale Bienemy retains getting handed over?
The list of allegations from Bienemy’s time as a operating again at Colorado to turning into a collegiate coach is troubling, together with allegedly grabbing a feminine parking attendant by the neck and threatening her in 1993. Not having an ideal report is motive sufficient to not rent him as a head coach, however let’s not faux he’d be the one one with an unsavory previous who has had the prospect to helm an NFL workforce. Can we overlook City Meyer that rapidly? Some questioned if Bienemy would soar again to the school ranks when the Buffaloes’ job opened up a couple of months again. Colorado ended up hiring Deion Sanders. Even so, Jim Harbaugh’s flirtation with going again to the NFL and leaving Michigan behind has far more credence, as a result of he’s led a workforce to a Tremendous Bowl earlier than his present stint in Ann Arbor. Bienemy doesn’t have any heading teaching expertise on his resume.
Pretending Bienemy’s circumstances might be a lot totally different subsequent 12 months when one other teaching carousel begins is silly. He did greater than sufficient to show he was worthy by NFL requirements a very long time in the past to be one of many league’s 32 head coaches. And he was handed over greater than a dozen occasions because the Chiefs’ 2020 Tremendous Bowl victory. Even when Kansas Metropolis doesn’t win one other title subsequent season, who doubts its offense gained’t look spectacular? And that might be partially resulting from Bienemy.
On paper, leaving the Chiefs for a increase and a brand new alternative would do the trick. Then you need to do not forget that the individuals hiring head coaches gained’t change, even when Bienemy leads Washington to playoff success in a better convention. And if none with vacancies during the last three years would rent him, he’ll have to attend for Clark Hunt to advertise him. And Bienemy might be nicely overdue when that day comes.
