The Kansas City Chiefs might promote from within to fill their vacant offensive coordinator role by replacing Matt Nagy with Eric Bieniemy.
Eric Bieniemy has always been mentioned as a promising young assistant coach whose work with the Kansas City Chiefs stable of running backs has been praised. If the Chiefs were ever going to potentially reward him for his efforts, the time might be now given the need for replacements for two assistant coaches with the Chiefs.
The Chiefs lost both offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and assistant head coach Brad Childress on Monday in two separate bits of news. The Chicago Bears hired away Nagy to be their new head coach after apparently liking what they heard from him during an interview on Sunday. Around the same time, a rumor also leaked that Brad Childress was on the verge of retiring from the NFL, leaving the Chiefs without two senior voices on the offensive side of the coaching staff.
Ian Rapoport says Bieniemy is a “top internal candidate.”
The #Chiefs have options at OC to replace Matt Nagy, but one top iternal candidate: RBs coach Eric Bieniemy. A former college OC, he'll be strongly considered.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 8, 2018
Bieniemy, who himself was a running back in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals, has been with the Chiefs long enough to step in and likely not miss a beat. He’s been Andy Reid’s running backs coach since he arrived in Kansas City back in 2013. He certainly deserves credit for Kareem Hunt’s success, and Bieniemy has worked with a few other very talented backs over the last five years including Jamaal Charles and Spencer Ware.
Bieniemy’s final season as a running back in the NFL was with the Philadelphia Eagles, Reid’s first year as their coach.