The Fritz Pollard Alliance has listed Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy as a potential head coaching candidate.
Every year the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation makes a list of recommendations to the NFL, which is circulated to every team, citing a number of minority head coaching candidates for teams to consider as they make any new hires. This year, Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is on the list, showing himself to be a strong future head coaching candidate for either this year or soon thereafter.
Bieniemy is a first-time NFL offensive coordinator this year with the Chiefs after taking over for Matt Nagy. Andy Reid promoted him from running backs coach and hired Deland McCullough to take his place.
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Bieniemy has been a coordinator in the past but only at the college level, at his alma mater at Colorado. That also might be Bieniemy’s best bet for a head coaching position sooner than later. He’s only been a positional coach for most of his NFL career and a one-year offensive head under Andy Reid. That’s an excellent place to learn, of course, but NFL owners and executives might want a bit more time spent learning under Reid than a single season—a move from positional coach to head coach in just over a year is a serious leap.
As for the college option, Colorado is hiring a new head coach at this very moment, and Bieniemy’s name is being circulated alongside other options or favorites like Ryan Day. The search is going slowly thus far, but Bieniemy hasn’t said anything publicly on one side or the other, so perhaps activity is happening behind the scenes.
The full list of recommendations by the Fritz Pollard Alliance:
- Keith Armstrong, Falcons
- Teryl Austin, unemployed
- Eric Bieniemy, Chiefs
- Jim Caldwell, unemployed
- George Edwards, Vikings
- Brian Flores, Patriots
- Leslie Frazier, Bills
- Hue Jackson, Bengals
- Raheem Morris, Falcons
- Kris Richard, Cowboys
- Duce Staley, Eagles
Last year only one member of the FPA was given a head coaching job when the Arizona Cardinals hired Steve Wilks.