On Monday, the Houston Texans finalized plans to hire Lovie Smith and the New Orleans Saints announced they would promote current defensive coordinator Dennis Allen as their new head coach. That means that the Minnesota Vikings opening is the last head coaching vacancy in the NFL this cycle, at least for the moment.
Unless something wild changes, it does not appear that Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy will be up for that job, which means the highly touted black assistant coach will have missed out on a head coaching opportunity for the third-consecutive season. There’s been a lot of discussions around why Bieniemy has been passed over so much, especially as the Chiefs offense tore through the NFL en route to two Super Bowl appearances and another playoff spot this season.
In the past, at least, it was understood that Bieniemy could return to Kansas City and keep the offense humming. However, NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero noted Monday night that his contract is expiring, which means that if he wants a change of pace to try and prove he can succeed away from Andy Reid, now might be the time.
#Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s contract is expiring, per sources.
So after getting passed over for head coaching opportunities again, Bieniemy could either return to Kansas City or be a hot free-agent OC target elsewhere.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 7, 2022
Given how many new head coaches there are, not to mention how many coordinators have already shuffled around, there are plenty of opportunities out there. And regardless of his bona fides as a head coach, there’s no denying that he can run an offense.
In the meantime, a lot of NFL folks have the same kind of reaction to the fact that someone as successful as him can’t land a head coaching gig in a world where Josh McCown came within inches of getting one with zero NFL coaching experience.
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1490827131261435904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1490827131261435904%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthespun.com%2Fmore%2Ftop-stories%2Feveryone-said-same-thing-about-eric-bieniemy-on-monday
https://twitter.com/GhostFaceDrizzy/status/1490832607097257986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1490832607097257986%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthespun.com%2Fmore%2Ftop-stories%2Feveryone-said-same-thing-about-eric-bieniemy-on-monday
to fill my franchise’s head coach’s vacancy i did conduct an interview with eric bienemy. while we came away very impressed with him, we have elected instead to hire jeoff geoff, a serial forest-fire arsonist with no football experience who has recently died
— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) February 8, 2022
Dennis Allen getting the HC job with the Saints closes the door on OCs Eric Bienemy and Byron Leftwich. Some NFL owners wear their racism proudly, as if it were a Super Bowl ring
— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) February 7, 2022
Brian Flores seems to have been onto something.
