Eric Bieniemy considered favorite for Washington Redskins head coaching job

Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is considered the frontrunner, per Las Vegas oddsmakers, for the Washington Redskins head coaching gig.

Jay Gruden is out. Bill Callahan is in. Eric Bieniemy is projected to be next.

So goes the carousel of news and rumors in the nation’s capital as the Washington Redskins have decided to officially make changes to the team’s leadership with the firing of Gruden as head coach after the team’s most recent loss, a 33-7 drubbing at the hands of the New England Patriots.

With the loss, Gruden’s Redskins were one of the NFL’s few winless teams at 0-5. They were already in the basement in the NFC East and headed for the team’s worst finish since Gruden first arrived back in 2014 when they won only 4 games in his first season at the helm. In five years and five games with the team, Gruden’s record overall is 35-49 with a single playoff appearance to show for his efforts back in 2015. That year was a one-and-done appearance that featured the best of Gruden’s work.

With Gruden as head coach, the Redskins were the very face of mediocrity in the NFL. When you remove his first and last seasons, he averaged just under 8 wins a year, occupying a middle ground that kept the team from accessing top-tier talent in the draft yet never culminating in an ability to make a postseason run. Of course, much of that was due to the inept personnel department that has plagued the team for far longer than Gruden’s tenure.

For now, Bill Callahan has been tasked with being the team’s interim head coach. Callahan, the team’s offensive line coach, went 15-17 in his only previous head coaching stint in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders, a run that included a Super Bowl appearance in 2002. He now gets a second chance to further his legacy and convince Washington’s brass that he deserves a real chance instead of the interim title.

Oddsmakers in Las Vegas, however, consider Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to be the odds-on favorite for the long-term. Callahan’s hire allows the team to save face this season with some hope under new leadership without going through the massive transition that comes when hiring an outside head coach.

Bieniemy is certainly distracted with his current team and their Super Bowl hopes. If he is hired, he will want to bring a staff of his own onto the team, which means a lot more upheaval than what will happen now—given that Gruden is the lone face being fired.

Here’s a look at the complete odds from Vegas on the favorites to take over for Gruden and Callahan at season’s end.

Bieniemy is a part of Andy Reid‘s coaching tree, a network of impressive coaches with a very good track record of recent success. Doug Pederson won the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles just two years ago. Matt Nagy has helped turn around the Chicago Bears fortunes since 2018. Sean McDermott is doing a great job this season in Buffalo with the Bills, and Ron Rivera and John Harbaugh are long-tenured coaches with Super Bowl rings.

Bieniemy hopes to one day join that group as a head coach of his own team. Undoubtedly he will get that look soon enough and he might have his choice of more jobs than just the Washington one.